December 1997
Smoking Ban Could Lure New Customers, Study Shows A new survey of 2,356 Massachusetts adults conducted by Lois Biener of the Center for Survey Research and Michael Siegel M.D. of the Boston University School of Public Health indicates that three in ten customers would choose to dine out more often at smokefree restaurants. Two thirds of those interviewed said that a smoking ban would have no effect on how frequently they patronized a bar or restaurant that became smoke free.
The new findings contradict common arguments that bars and restaurants would lose business if ordinances were enacted to ban smoking, arguments that have swayed some restaurant and bar owners to the side of the tobacco industry.
"I think it is time for bar and restaurant owners to realize that their interests may be in conflict with those of the tobacco industry, which has been fighting smoking bans," says Biener. "The evidence suggests that a smoking ban could actually increase their business."
Biener and Siegel believe that the survey has uncovered a potential new clientele for smoke-free bars, with ten percent of those surveyed saying they would start going to bars if smoking was banned. This could translate into approximately 120,000 new customers for smoke free bars and clubs.
On December 2, Biener and Siegel participated in a press conference sponsored by the American Medical Association/American Public Health Association in New York City to release the findings of the study. An article by the researchers on their survey results appears in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health.