Smoke Screening - How to Take a Business Approach to Your Startup's Smoking Policy

Perhaps someday the familiar inquiry, "Would you prefer smoking or nonsmoking?" will banish from the hospitality industry. As it stands, according to the American Lung Association, 11 states -- California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont -- prohibit smoking in restaurants. In 28 states, there are similar bans at the county and city levels. For restaurateurs operating in these state and local jurisdictions, whether to institute a voluntary "smoke free" policy is moot. It's the law.

Until such time as state and local government is able to impose a ban on smoking in restaurants everywhere, many startup restaurateurs grapple with voluntarily establishing a smoke-free policy or setting aside areas of the house for smokers, including the bar. Clouding the issue is the effect their decision will have on the health of their business, in an already tough and competitive industry.

Is a Smoke-Free Future on the Horizon?

You have to wonder if your smoking policy -- whichever way you go -- will become a moot point in a few years, regardless of your location. Some nonsmoking advocates believe so. Overall, around the country, just over one-third of the population now lives in an area with smoke-free restaurants according to local or state law, according to Bronson Frick, associate director for Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR) in Berkeley, California. "As the NRA (National Restaurant Association) itself has pointed out," Frick says, "this is primarily a local issue where individual communities can debate whether or not it's right to smoke in ways that harm other people in the workplace." ANR estimates that between local and state laws, more than 4,600 cities are smoke-free in their workplaces.