Scott Carlson does not like being surrounded by cigarette smoke.

“I hate smoking,” said Carlson, who owns the Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Co. “But what I hate more is the government telling me how to run my business.”

With Democrats taking control of both houses of the state Legislature, those following the debate expect legislation regulating smoking in public buildings, such as restaurants and bars, to quickly come to a vote. Now both sides of this emotional issue are gearing up for the battle ahead.

“I have no doubt that this will come up this legislative session,” said Doni DeNucci, president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association. “We just have to make sure we get our side out.”

DeNucci said her organization believes the decision should be left up to individual business owners. She said if customers want smoke-free establishments, restaurants and bars ultimately will have no choice but to succumb to their will.

“About 80 percent of the businesses we represent are currently non-smoking,” DeNucci said. “The current law is working. If a business doesn’t remain accountable to its customers, the customers won’t come back. That is the way the system is supposed to work.”

But that argument doesn’t convince most who want to see a public smoking ban.

“That’s fine for 80 percent of the restaurants, but the other 20 percent deserve to have clean air, too,” said state Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines. “I’m not convinced or swayed by that argument.”

McCoy said it is the government’s responsibility to protect its citizens, and part of that is making sure they have a safe work environment.

“We know secondhand smoke contains 300 poisons and causes cancer,” he said. “We also know it’s a health impact to the workers exposed to it day in and day out. It is time we got serious about this.”

The problem is that restaurants operate on a very small profit margin, Carlson said, and any customer loss, however small, could cause an establishment to close its doors.

“That’s why I’m so passionate about this, because this is government tinkering with my livelihood,” he said. “Small business is already highly regulated by its customers.”

He said when his restaurant first opened, smoking was allowed in the dining area. But within the first year, his customers made it clear that they didn’t like it. So now, smoking is allowed only in the bar area.

“If government left it alone, which they should, in a few years, I think almost all restaurants and bars would be non-smoking anyway,” Carlson said. “That’s just where society is heading. I definitely see us going non-smoking down the road. But it should be our decision based on what our customers want.”



Local vs. state control

Smoking opponents disagree over whether they should try for a statewide ban on smoking in public places, or whether they first should seek legislation allowing cities and counties to institute local bans. Both Ames and Iowa City passed ordinances to prohibit smoking in restaurants, but they were struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court in 2003. The court said the local ordinances were not permitted under state law.

At least 15 states have imposed smoking bans, and 33 states allow cities to impose local bans. Some activists fear that if legislators try to pass a statewide ban, tobacco interests could lobby to have it filled with exemptions and loopholes.

McCoy said the problem with local control is that it is simply passing the buck in a very heated debate for political purposes.

“You can say you’re for a smoking ban without actually banning any smoking,” he said. “It’s a safer political bet for some politicians. It shifts the burden of making the decision to the local governments. I am a supporter of a statewide ban on smoking in public places. I think if it had to be done piece by piece, it would be much harder. I also think it’s a matter of fairness, since you don’t want one community to have an advantage over another.”

DeNucci said allowing local government to regulate smoking would be a nightmare for restaurants and bars, giving unfair advantages to establishments in different communities.

“The last thing we want to see is 900 different smoking ordinances,” she said. “You could have a situation where a restaurant in Clive can’t allow smoking, but just across the street in West Des Moines, no such prohibition exists. That is an unfair situation for the individual business owners.”

Despite favoring a statewide ban, McCoy said he would vote to give local governments the power to establish their own smoking ordinances.

“I’m a pragmatist and know that sometimes you just have to take the small victories,” he said. “I think progressive communities like Des Moines, West Des Moines, Clive and the others in our area would pass a ban rather quickly.”



Effect on business

Lincoln, Neb., banned smoking in all public buildings Jan. 1, 2005, becoming the first city in the state to do so, and the it has had on local business was surprising, said Jim Partington, executive director of the Nebraska Restaurant Association.

“Overall, I think the impact has been a good thing,” he said. “It has really changed the market for a lot of establishments. Like for sports bars, they have gotten away from making money primarily from drinks and moved more towards a family-friendly environment.”

Though some of the problems he predicted during the smoking ban debate have not occurred, he still believes giving the authority to ban smoking to local governments is a mistake.

“In the beginning, we thought it should be left up to the individual owners,” he said. “While we still believe that, if there is going to be a ban in place, it should be statewide, not community by community. That would minimize the competitive disadvantage that has been created in our state.”

Partington said the problem businesses are facing with the local bans is that customers choosing to smoke can simply go a few miles down the road, thus creating an unfair situation for those affected by the ban.

Partington said if there is going to be a smoking ban, it should be established statewide to prevent local governments from passing their own versions that could exclude certain types of business.

“If you are going to have a ban, there should be no exceptions,” he said. “You have to have a level playing field. It isn’t fair to make one set of rules for restaurants and another for, let’s say, casinos.”

He said that if Iowa is considering a statewide ban, it should partner with Nebraska and other neighboring states to create a ban that would offer a level playing field for business located near state borders.

Carlson said that if politicians were really interested in public health, they would ban smoking outright.

“If it were truly about health, they would ban smoking completely,” he said. “This is about scoring points and getting re-elected.”

Emotional issue

“This is certainly not a smoking versus non-smoking issue for us,” DeNucci said. “It’s a business issue. The problem with this debate is that for a lot of people it is a very emotional issue. If you’re not anti-smoking, obviously you’re pro-smoking, and that just isn’t the way it is.”

The emotion of this issue is what makes it so tricky, Carlson said. On one hand you have business owners who have invested their lives in a business they feel could be threatened by the government’s actions. On the other, you have those who believe secondhand smoke is a danger to their health and that the government should step in and regulate it.

“I don’t like smoking,” he said. “I really don’t. But people hear that I’m opposed to a ban and they automatically label me as pro-smoking. There are a lot of emotions in this debate, and that is what makes it so dangerous.”

McCoy said many restaurant owners he has spoken with are quietly supportive of a ban. Though they don’t want to anger their smoking clientele by banning smoking in their establishments, they believe business could improve when people who otherwise would avoid a particular bar because of the smoke decide to patronize it again.

“Smoking is one of the reasons I don’t go out anymore,” McCoy said. “I think you’d see more people out if we passed a ban. Since they passed a smoking ban in New York City, restaurants and bars have seen an increase in business. There is no reason to believe it wouldn’t happen here as well.”