Eating Out Still In Despite Smoking Bans

Restaurateurs who fear smoking bans hurt their business should be reassured by a federal study showing residents of a Texas suburb ate out just as often even when they couldn’t light up.

Sales at the eight indoor restaurants in West Lake Hills, just outside Austin, even increased slightly after the town banned smoking in restaurants, according to the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This study is important because it reinforces that you can both protect your customers and workers without harming your business,” said Michael Eriksen, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

A spokesman for the tobacco industry called the CDC report “naive and purely political.” And a restaurant industry group in New York said the CDC was overlooking the losses of eateries after New York City enacted a smoking ban in April.

In June, 1993, West Lake Hills joined more than 100 cities nationwide that banned smoking from restaurants. Eighteen months after the ban, restaurant sales had risen about 5%, the CDC found.

Eriksen said the slight increase showed residents didn’t abandon local restaurants for places where they were free to smoke.

But a spokesman for the Washington-based Tobacco Institute criticized the CDC report for not reflecting the national picture.

“From L.A. to New York, restaurants are documenting serious losses. For the CDC to pretend that’s not happening is unscientific,” Thomas Lauria said.

Scott Wexler of the New York Tavern and Restaurant Assn. said a study for the group found that 41% of its New York City members said they’ve lost money since the ban.