Smoking Ban In Restaurants, Bars Gaining Support

Publication Date: 2006-06-28

• Publication:WTAE-TV 4 (Pittsburgh, PA)

The Pennsylvania Restaurant Association is changing its position and will support a ban on smoking in the workplace, including bars, restaurants, offices and manufacturing plants.

For years, restaurant owners have fought to keep smoking permitted in designated sections. But now, after a contentious debate, Channel 4 Action News reporter Shannon Perrine said they're having a change of heart.

It all comes back to employees, bartenders and waitstaff, who are sometimes exposed to constant secondhand smoke, said restaurant association president Kevin Joyce.

"The recent studies that study hospitality employees that are non-smokers and the incidents of lung cancer, the incidents of heart disease related to secondhand smoke -- it's hard to not look at that evidence," said Joyce...

"Our employees are important to us, and their health is important to us, and the cost of their health insurance is important to us," said Joyce.