Restaurant Press Releases

Health and Safety Rises to Top of Restaurateurs Concerns About Secondhand Smoke

CONTACT:
Paul McIntyre

ROSEVILLE, CA - A national survey released by the nonprofit group Kids Involuntarily Inhaling Secondhand Smoke (KIISS) indicates that currently, 100 percent of chain and independent restaurants, plus 63 percent of restaurant associations now consider secondhand smoke a health and safety issue. This survey covered chain and independent restaurants, as well as state restaurant associations, where restaurant smoking is not regulated by legislation.

This compares to 60 percent of chains, 98 percent of independents and 50 percent of restaurant associations that felt that smoking in restaurants was a health and safety issue a year ago.

When surveyed for solutions for this health and safety issue, only eight percent of chains, 11 percent of independents and 29 percent of restaurant associations now believe proper ventilation systems can solve the problem. "These numbers show the restaurant industry's dramatic drop in support for the tobacco industry's highly promoted ventilation solution, over the past three years" according to KIISS's President and CEO Paul McIntyre.

When KIISS's annual survey began four years ago, only 55 percent of chains, 28 percent of independents and 36 percent of restaurant associations believed smoking would be banned at all restaurants nationwide within 10 years. Now those numbers have risen to 92, 89 and 67 percent respectively.

Today more than 32 percent of the nation's population is protected by restaurants that are smoke free by regulation. Notable additions to those numbers include the state of Massachusetts, which in 2004 became the sixth state joining California, Connecticut, Maine, Delaware and New York in banning in all workplaces including restaurants and bars. Individual cities such as Toledo, Ohio; Lexington, Kentucky; El Paso, Texas and many more have done the same.

Many more states, counties and cities have added their own versions for a total of more than 1,700 smoke-free ordinances nationwide.

KIISS was founded in 2000 by those influential in passing the nation's first 100-percent statewide workplace smoking ban in California in 1994. Anyone interested in more information on helping restaurants or bars become smoke-free can obtain videos, pamphlets or decals at www.kiiss.org.