Local bars, patrons brace for smoking ban

First in restaurants, then on campus and now even in bars ... lighting up a cigarette will be prohibited in all public buildings beginning Jan. 1, 2005. \nBloomington will be the first city in the Midwest to be entirely smoke-free after the City Council voted 8-1 on March 27, 2003. \n"Between the first committee meeting and the passing of the amendment there was a lot of lobbying," said former City Council Member Tony Pizzo. "We gave the bars an extra 15 months before they became smoke-free in response to lobbying efforts."\nPizzo spends his days of work at the Bloomington Hospital performing autopsies on patients who died from smoking-related diseases. After studying the negative effects of second-hand smoke, he introduced the amendment during.\n"I am a doctor of medicine and throughout my career, I've seen a lot of people die from smoke-related reasons," he said. "And during my last term, I wanted to do something about it." \nResearch shows California has decreased its number of smokers by 38 percent since it went smoke-free seven years ago.\nPizzo's research shows 29 percent of adults and 37 percent of high school students smoke in Bloomington.\n"I hope these numbers drop into the teens after the law is in effect," Pizzo said. "I hope eventually (the numbers) go down to nothing."\nPizzo said he is not taking away rights of smokers, but decreasing the risks of non-smokers being affected by second-hand smoke.\nBrian Radermacher, manager of Crazy Horse, said he thinks it should be the choice of the business to allow smoking.\n"I understand the rule for businesses that are primarily restaurants, but we are a bar that serves food," Radermacher said. "We've always said if you're a non-smoker, and it bothers you, then you can go to another bar."\nRadermacher said he doesn't think the ordinance will lower the number of customers who visit his bar, but fears it could possibly lower his total sales. He said although his bar might attract more non-smokers under the new ordinance, smokers won't stay as long.\n"They'll have to make several trips out to the parking lot to smoke," he said. "They'll get tired of walking across the street to smoke."\nSenior Ashley Collings said she is pleased with the ordinance. \n"I'm glad people can't smoke because now I can breathe in (the bar)," Collings said. "I can't stand it when people blow it in my face because my hair and my clothes just reek of smoke. It's just gross; it's dirty."\nNot everyone who goes to the bars agrees with the ordinance.\nJunior Kristen Gonsalves said she understands the reason for the law, but doesn't think it is fair.\n"I know I will smoke less when I go to the bars, but I still think the attempt to become a smoke-free America is stupid," Gonsalves said. "People telling me to quit smoking doesn't make me want to smoke any less than I do now."\nAgreeing people shouldn't be influenced to quit smoking, Radermacher said, "It's a little tedious to have to enforce moral issues."\n-- Contact staff writer Nellie Summerfield at nsummerf@indiana.edu.