Smoking to be banned in Boston clubs and bars

After a unanimous vote by the Board of the Boston Public Health Commission last month, Boston will become the 70th city in the nation to ban smoking in bars and clubs. Starting May 5, nightspots in Boston will be smoke-free, although most of the city's surrounding areas will continue to allow smoking.

The law, passed on Dec. 11, was crafted with worker safety in mind. Bartenders and wait staff are exposed to large amounts of second-hand smoke, more so than many other kinds of workers. The Board of the Boston Public Health Commission mandates that all workplaces provide a smoke-free environment for employees.

Maggie Beiser, a Tufts student who works at Toad in Porter Square, is frequently subjected to intense second-hand smoke. "The place is really small and smoky; it can be like smoking a half pack in four hours," Beiser said.

Many employees of smoke-filled clubs and bars have welcomed the new ban. "Everyone is talking about it," Beiser said, and bartenders are excited because they no longer have to stay in a cramped smoke-filled space.

There is a general agreement that the law would be most effective as a "twelve-community standard" whereby Boston's surrounding cities would also pass no-smoking bans to prevent bar-hoppers from migrating to cities where they can smoke. So far, only Brookline has banned smoking in bars and clubs.

But coordination between Boston-area towns may be unnecessary since the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has also proposed legislation to make the entire state smoke-free.

Many Medford and Somerville businessmen are confident that patrons will not be deterred by the ban on smoking. People "want entertainment outside of their homes" and will go out regardless of their ability to smoke, said Rob Ames of the Joshua Tree restaurant and bar in Davis Square. Customers will cross town lines instead of staying closer to home only if the ban is inconsistently applied in Boston's outskirts, Ames said.

One of the biggest problems with the ban is that it will be necessary to provide ashtrays outside for smokers and to increase street police officers to cover the larger number of customers outside smoking, Ames said.

Somerville is considering passing a similar law, but President of the Chamber of Commerce Stephen Mackey is wary because Somerville relies much more heavily on restaurants and bars for income than surrounding communities.

Even application of the ban will be fundamental to its success in Somerville. "It's important that Cambridge either go with us or before us," Somerville Health Director Jack Vondras said.

There is mixed support for this initiative among both smoking and non-smoking students. Freshman Steve Briganti, who does not smoke, thinks that cigarette smoke "is annoying but should be allowed."

"Despite the fact that your eyes water and clothes stink," he said, there is more that goes into your decision to choose a club than whether it allows smoking.

The Burren's Ben Saywer said that the local hot spot is holding tight before taking any action to deal with smoking customers. Smoking is currently restricted during the bar's restaurant hours, and Sawyer anticipates "no problem" if all surrounding areas go non-smoking.

Smoking has been prohibited in all Boston restaurants since September 1998.

Some students view the ban as intrusive and unnecessary. "This shouldn't be a government initiative," freshman smoker Brett Nelson said. "If people didn't want smoky bars, they wouldn't go either to drink or work, and the market would take care of it."

An anonymous smoker says that she feels repressed by this new law. "I am doing something perfectly legal in a private establishment," she said. "It's other people's decision to come into the bar."