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JUN

Ohio Smoking Ban Destroys Business

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The numbers are coming in, and we are starting to see just what the smoking ban Nazis are doing to our free market society.

"Since Ohio's smoking ban began being enforced, business is down about 20 percent at Martini & Nuzzi's bar in Maumee, where owner Cheryl Jiannuzzi now spends time sweeping up cigarette butts from the sidewalk, and customers such as Jeff Husnick of Toledo and Chris Havermale of Perrysburg fume."

Complaints pile up since Ohio's smoking-ban enforcement began

Original article:

Nick Fall has complied with Ohio’s smoking ban by posting related signs and removing the ashtrays at his New Airport Lounge, but he won’t police customers who light up.

The neighborhood-bar owner doesn’t plan to start prohibiting smoking until the fines associated with the ban start kicking in, a decision that has kept his tobacco-using clientele happy for the last month and has even attracted some new customers.

Nonsmokers outnumber smokers in Ohio, but not many nonsmokers come to his Holland bar, Mr. Fall said. No food other than snacks is served at the New Airport Lounge, and there are other options for nonsmokers, he said.

"I don’t like country music, so I don’t go to a country bar," Mr. Fall reasoned last week. "If you don’t like smoking, don’t go to a smoking bar."

A month after Ohio started to enforce the smoking ban at most public buildings, much to the long-awaited delight of nonsmokers, health officials have received more than 225 complaints about smoking at about 150 locations in Lucas County.

This week, health officials will begin to send warning letters to violators. But it could take until fall for any fines to be imposed.

Like the New Airport Lounge, some holdouts have received multiple complaints, and bars and restaurants make up about 95 percent of reports, Toledo-Lucas County Health Department officials said last week.

Other businesses and the inspectors themselves, meanwhile, are working through early enforcement issues such as how far away smokers need to stay from a building’s entrance so smoke doesn’t drift inside, as well as the best time to investigate complaints. Businesses statewide will be investigated by local health departments and receive warnings for their first violations, followed by fines ranging from $100 to $2,500, depending on the number of incidents.

All fines could be doubled for flagrant violators, and there have been about 5,200 complaints received statewide so far, said Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health.

Fewer complaints are being received in more rural counties, such as Fulton, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Wood. Complaints for those areas range from nine in Fulton to 41 in Wood, officials said.

Some of the Wood County complaints proved to be frivolous, and some involved not having signs posted, said Brad Espen, director of environmental health for the county health department.

Ottawa County’s 40 complaints involve 13 locations, said Nancy Osborn, county health commissioner. "We’ve had a couple of heavy hitters," she said.

Wendy Simpkins, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society, said her group is not working to police the ban or seek out potential violators.

Since Ohio’s smoking ban began being enforced, business is down about 20 percent at Martini & Nuzzi’s bar in Maumee, where owner Cheryl Jiannuzzi now spends time sweeping up cigarette butts from the sidewalk, and customers such as Jeff Husnick of Toledo and Chris Havermale of Perrysburg fume.

A sign warns Martini & Nuzzi’s customers that they can’t take drinks outside while they smoke, and Mr. Husnick said he stays home more often so he can drink and puff at the same time.

"I’m 31 years old," he said. "I should be able to light up if I want to."

Toledo-Lucas County health inspectors have been investigating complaints and will begin issuing the first warning letters this week, said Karim Baroudi, supervisor for inspectors.

"We’re finding a mixed bag out there," he said. "Some of them are violations, and some of them are dismissed."

Some businesses already have appealed complaints, and for those that continue protesting at every available step, fines will not start appearing until fall, officials said. Complaints probably will lessen in about six months, said Alan Ruffell, the department’s director of environmental health.

Surprisingly, the department’s Mr. Baroudi said, more complaints are coming in from smaller areas such as Whitehouse and Curtice than anticipated. Mad Anthony’s Tavern Inc. in Waterville and the Barnacle in Curtice are among establishments with multiple complaints, as is Delaney’s Lounge in Toledo and other city bars.

Several private clubs throughout the county are racking up multiple complaints too. The Fraternal Order of Eagles in Maumee, one of the repeat offenders, is waiting for a final decision on whether smoking will be allowed in private clubs, said an officer who declined to be identified.

Bars, restaurants, and clubs are not the only potential repeat violators. There have been numerous complaints, for example, about smoking violations at DaimlerChrysler AG’s Toledo Jeep Assembly complex and Dales Corp. in Toledo.

Another surprise for health department officials? Reports of smoking violations at places such as Sylvan Elementary School in Sylvania, Stautzenberger College in Toledo, the Toledo Area Humane Society in Maumee, and Darlington Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Toledo.

Complaints about the quartet involved infiltration of smoke from outside, a common issue. Officials at all four workplaces said they have addressed problems about smoking far enough away from outdoor entrances, and Stautzenberger College is working on a plan to keep its new campus smoke free, said Brian Niedzwiecki, vice president of operations.

The Toledo Area Humane Society established an area about 55 feet from the building, where employees and volunteers can light up, reasoning that is ample space to prevent smoke from coming inside, said Natasha Bailey, director of operations.

Nursing homes, where smoking is permitted inside under certain conditions, have a dilemma. Darlington employees smoke more than 30 feet away from the building, but the smoking area that residents use is closer, said Robin Bates, business office manager.

"It’s not like it’s trailing through the building," she said of the smoke. "There’s only so much you can do to keep that out."

Bill Delaney, owner of Delaney’s Lounge, said smoking-ban opponents are working on a counterproposal that they hope to get on the November ballot. "I think we’ve got a real good chance of overturning it," he said.

Mr. Fall, the Holland bar owner with six employees, said he fears that the smoking ban will hurt the Toledo area economy, a common complaint among businesses.

"It’s not just me that I’m concerned about," he said. "I’m worried about my bartenders too."

Said Maumee bar owner Ms. Jiannuzzi: "Go pick on restaurants that have children in there.

Jun 04, 2007 6:21 pm   Email to a Friend

Comments

fred on Sep 16, 2009 11:54 am

smokers really stink

Michael on Jun 29, 2009 5:09 pm

For all of you angry writers, especially you GoTimothy, please proof read your stuff before submitting. I couldn't even finish reading your whole thing about how you're better than all the smokers, because you never started to smoke. However, your English is crap. AND you apparently don't know any smokers, so I suggests you stop being a close minded prick and stop expressing your ideas until then.

On to the main point. Even as a 20, almost 21!, year old smoker I am glad they banned smoking in restaurants. That helped me cut back smoking substantially, saving me money which is all I am personally worried about. BUT I do think banning it in bars is a little much. I know a lot of "nonsmokers" that smoke when they drink. Also, do you think the guy/lady that is sitting next to you at the bar, finishing his who knows how many brews, is thinking "oh my god, I don't want lung cancer!". Chances are, no. They are thinking "oh no, shouldn't have drank that last one!" as they are getting ready to vomit on your new shirt. Then who is "being rude"? You the smoker, or the person sitting next to you that doesn't know how to control themselves at the bar? Now think about this: if the person sitting next to you could have had a cigarette in between drinks, would she have vomited on your new shirt seeing as she was able to pace her self?

That's all for now. Smokers: check out the e-cigs! Just Google it, something will come up. You can smoke those ANYWHERE, because it's not really smoke and they don't harm anyone around you. However, I'm sure a lot of the nonsmokers from this website will still give that annoying cough from across the room the second you take your first puff of one, but don't let that discourage you. They are probably just bitter because us smokers have outsmarted the nonsmokers again, and now they are going to have to find something else to cry about.

Anyone who would like to respond to this, feel free to email me at ap_crusham@yahoo.com Especially you GoTimothy, I'd like to actually try and understand what you wrote.

GoTimothy on Feb 17, 2009 3:02 am

Business is down 20% bullshit. They did not ban smoking in Michigan and business is down 40% to 50%. The ecomomy is bad, don't blaime the no smoking law. I really sounds like they are doing is if its only down 20%. More then 75% of Americans don't smoke and they do not go to places where they allow smoking. The 25% of the smokers stoped going to their hangout when they banned smoking, but business will pick up when the non smokers start going out again.


They were supposed to ban smoking in public bars and restaurants in

Michigan this January, but the law fell through because smokers claim they

will not spend money in bars if they do. Smokers are protesting claiming

that it's a free country and it is their right to cause other people harm.

The tobacco companies have said that their product is not addictive and

that the only reason why people smoke, is because smokers enjoy blowing

toxic smoke into other people's breathing environments. Smokers agree

that they are not addicted, that the only reason why they smoke, is they

enjoy causing other people disease, ruining their clothing and spoiling

their meals at restaurants.

Non-smokers have rights to. We also live in a country with a

constitutional right to bear arms, for the purpose of killing people who

try to harm or kill us, or our children with toxic smoke. It is self

defense to shoot a smoker, if he is smoking in your environment or in the

environment where your children are playing. It has already been prov-en

that smoking releases tar, dangerous narcotics called nicotine and cancer

causing carcinogens into the air. And the smokers have admitted that they

are not addicted they just enjoy causing others pain and suffering.

I wondered if there was some fun and causing others pain and suffering. I

wondered what it would be like to go around to bars in restaurants and

spray cancer causing spray paint laced with narcotics and tar into the

faces, food and clothing of smokers. Not because I'm addicted to spraying

toxic paint, but because it could be enjoyable. In fact it's probably

more enjoyable than smoking. The smokers are committing suicide anyway, I

am sure they don't mind us non smokers spraying cancer causing

carcinogens, tar and dangerous narcotics like nicotine into their

children's faces. They probably figure, if their children didn't die from

a spraying toxic paint in their face, they would have died from secondhand

smoke anyway.

The smoker killing conspiracy. There are 2 million Americans in prison

right now. I believe that a big percentage of these people are in there

for killing smokers. But the tobacco companies are covering up with their

lawyers, because they are afraid that of smokers find out non smokers are

killing them, claiming that it is to constitutional right to kill people

who are harming them with cancer causing carcinogens, they would quit

smoking. Their lawyers will claim that the non smoker shot the smoker,

because he is crazy, not because he was trying to protect his children.


Many bars and restaurants claim they will lose money as smokers will

stop spending their money if they do. However there are more non smokers

then smokers. What us non smokers need to do is call every local bar and

restaurant and tell them we will not be spending our money there until

they ban smoking. I don't smoke and I been putting up with the smokers for

25 years. But now that the law did not pass, because smokers only consider

their rights and not the rights of others, I will no longer be spending my

money at establishments that allow smoking. I am going to call those

establishments and let them know they are going to be losing my money,

until they do ban smoking. I will also let them know that the smokers are

claiming they are not addicted to tobacco they just enjoy blowing toxic

cancer causing agents into others faces for fun and they care less if it

causes serious injury to children.

I wrote to McDonald's, Burger King, Carls Jr, Arbys, Big Boy, all my local

eating places and even the Big Three car companies. I am not going to buy

a car from Fords until they ban smoking in all their factories and

dealers.

I told McDonald's THAT If THEY BAN SMOKING BEFORE BURGER KING, THEY CAN

PUT

BURGER KING OUT OF BUSINESS. Burger King could put McDonald's out of

business by banning smoking in all their places and running TV Ad's

showing children at McDonald's CHOKING ON SMOKE AS THEY PLAY ON McDonald's

playground. An ambulance at McDonald's picking up Asthmatic children and

rushing them to the emergency room, because they ate at McDonald's who

refused to ban smoking because of kickbacks from tobacco would be a good

Burger King TV commercial.

GoTimothy Warren Michigan. I think I am moving to Ohio. let all the chain

smokers move to Michigan

• SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING:Non Smokers have rights too, a right to bear arms to protect themselves and their children from people who willingly blow toxic cacer causing carcinogens in their breathing space, and they just may use that right, if you smoke withing 50 feet of them.

rayp on Dec 18, 2008 6:01 am

Hey non smokers? if it wasnt for us smokers paying the taxes and putting money in the economy, this nation would be even worse than it already is! if you dont like our smoke, then get the fuck away from me faggots!

Guytano Parks on Sep 02, 2008 8:52 pm

Hey, SMOKERS: SNUFF IT AND SHUT UP! The vote is in. WE won, YOU lost. Kill YOURSELVES; WE couldn't care less. But, the majority rules, and the majority rays, "WE WILL NO LONGER PUT UP WITH YOUR VILE HABIT IN ENCLOSED PUBLIC SPACES!!!" So deal with it already! p.s., the law wasn't passed to protect YOUR health, it was passed to protect OUR health and protect US from YOU!!!

Matt Menden on Feb 09, 2008 10:33 am

Ed Tarbush, I don't think you would be so dismissive if it was your livelihood that was being threatened.
This was passed mainly because of the money pumped into it by big pharmaceutical companies and supposed non-profit charities. I canceled my regular donation to the United Way after learning that they were putting money into this, there money is supposed to go to charity, not politics.

Ed Tarbush on Feb 03, 2008 1:14 am

BOO FRIGGIN' HOO......

You LOST!

Deal with it already.

Your "RIGHT" to pollute the air ENDS where my nose begins.

Quit your nasty, filthy, low-class habit before it kills you.

I doubt you will, you obviously posess enough self-loathing to smoke and pollute yourself, why would you care about anybody else?

Wankers......

Bigtime on Jul 05, 2007 12:41 pm

I wonder what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the boys
would have to say about the state of the Republic, here in Ohio, these days?

What would they say when they learned that all of the courage, sacrifice, honor and wisdom they expended, to start us off on the road to liberty, freedom and self determination, has all gone up in a puff of smoke?

What would they say when they learned that the Government, for which they so carefully drew the blueprint, has become so powerful that that it can make criminals of it's citizens for nothing more than choosing to allow the consumption of a LEGAL product, on their own property?

What would they say when they learned that one tavern owner may put up a sign that says NO SMOKING, but, another tavern owner will be punished for putting up a sign that says, IF SMOKING OFFENDS YOU, DON'T COME IN?

And, what would they say when they learned that our scarce law enforcement dollars will be spent to find and punish these tavern owners, at the same time that a sworn enemy of our country is trying his best, every day, to expose us all to a FIRST HAND whiff, of substances so terrible that they would be beyond the imagination of these Fathers of our Country?

I believe they would be speechless.

But, they WOULD shed a tear.

And, their tears would NOT be caused by second hand tobacco smoke!

dave on Jun 22, 2007 10:32 am

i don't smoke. i know plenty of people who do. it doesn't bother me nor does it scare me. i don't believe for a minute that i'm going to get cancer, or copd or heart desease from being with my friends that do smoke. in fact i will more than likely have a heart attack from the meat and cheese toppings on my pizza than i will from hanging out with people that smoke.so i can take it or leave it.

i feel i need to express my opinion on this smoking ban.

from my point of view the absurdity of it all just makes me want to fall down.

i personally voted for issue 4 and against issue 5. issue 4 gave more (if you'll excuse the pun) breathing room and made more sense to me.

did anyone even research this thing before it was put on the ballot?

i know there are examples from other cities and states that are doing fine after enacting a smoking ban,and that's o.k. but i have not seen any statistics on how many people who worked hard for 20 or 30 years building a business and then losing their shirts because of a smoking ban.

not to mention how is enforcement of said act to be funded? should it be funded from the taxes on tobacco?

i may be wrong but next to gasoline isn't tobacco the highest taxed commodity in ohio? however a guy can no longer have a smoke on the property that he bought, paid for and worked hard to establish. that seems to me borderline taxation without representation. isn't that unconstitutional?

now don't get me wrong, i do appriciate going to denny's and having my grand slam with out having smoke eye irritation, but there has to be a comprimise somewhere.

good ohio money is being spent in mi.pa.in.ky.and va. but the thing that really worries me is people going that extra 10 or 15 miles driving home 2 or 3 sheets to the wind and endangering more lives than standing next to a guy having a beer and smoke ever could.

i know a guy that owns a bar.he has played by all the rules, and has done the right things by the ban. (this just flips me out). 8 complaints have been filed on him, he has been found in compliance on all 8, and came to find the complaints were registered by a guy that was expelled from the bar for fighting. he was using the ban as a vengence tool.

i have read in the toledo blade opinion section, letters to the editor that borderline on facisim. one writer likened a smoker to a drunk driver insisting that ever time he lights up he is putting lives at risk. i have also read in one opinion that any bar owner that spurns the law should be shut down and his licences taken away.

my reaction to that is WHAT???
to think a person should be stripped of his livelyhood and deemed a criminal for lighting a cigarette? how absurd.

what next? are the reich niconazi stormtroopers going to bust in your door to see if you have an ashtray lurking around anywhere?

come on people let's reason together. there has to be some happy medium on this thing.

supplier concerned on Jun 20, 2007 10:14 am

Is any non-smoking restaurant before the ban suing for loss of competitive edge?

Jeannie on Jun 17, 2007 9:22 pm

You are so right

linkup on Jun 04, 2007 8:22 pm

Ohio isn't alone in this battle. The Ohioans ,Arizonans,Nevadans,etc should all email the US Senate Judiciary Committee and tell them that these bans are are the forerunner to the demise of our Country.I truly belive that as a society we are falling apart.We can thank the supporters of a Smoke Free America for the demise of America.

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