One year after the state enacted a strict antismoking law, some businesses are finding it difficult to keep customers while ... : Kicking the Habit

A year after California enacted one of the toughest antismoking laws in the nation, most businesses affected by the ban have learned to adjust quietly--though the transition for some has hardly been smooth or easy.

Operators of bowling alleys, ethnic cafes and other establishments that were once smokers’ havens said business has fallen sharply in the last year. And some restaurateurs have gone to extra lengths to hang on to smoking customers.

For example, one restaurant in Riverside County, Country Junction in Norco, formed a smoking club in which patrons paid $1 for a membership card and the privilege of lighting up in the public dining facility. Restaurant owner Elmer Arnold said that was legal because the law, which bans smoking in most indoor workplaces, exempts “private smokers’ lounges.”

However, health department officials and a municipal judge disagreed, and the restaurant owner was fined $270.

For all of last year, public health officials received 395 complaints of suspected noncompliance in Los Angeles County and 156 complaints in Orange County. Only a handful of employers statewide have been fined the initial $100 penalty for violations of the law. (Violators who contest the fines are also liable for court costs, and repeat offenders can be fined up to $500.)

Health analysts said the relatively low number of complaints reflects the fact that many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and several in Orange County, had their own antismoking ordinances before the statewide ban took effect.

“The law is not a problem because the social norm is already established,” said Anne Klink of California Smoke-Free Cities, a private group that is tracking the effects of the law. Nearly 85% of Californians do not smoke, so the ban “wasn’t exactly a shock wave,” Klink added.

Nonetheless, analysts said, the extent of noncompliance is probably much greater than the complaint numbers reflect.

In Downey, for example, a 27-year-old clerical worker in a small import-export company said three of the senior executives smoked in the 10-employee office. The worker, who asked not to be identified, said he got sick from the constant smoke, but he put up with it anyway until he recently quit.

Asked why he never complained to a public health agency, the worker said: “I wasn’t in the position to say anything. . . . I wouldn’t have been seen as a team player.”

For some types of businesses, such as pool halls and bowling alleys, the antismoking law has had a significant effect.

David Spiegel, chief operating officer at Los Angeles-based Active West Inc., which operates 18 bowling centers in the state, said the number of open bowlers has dropped by as much as 15% in the last year, and league bowling has also dipped slightly.

Spiegel and other bowling alley operators had hoped that an increase in nonsmoking customers would make up for the loss of bowlers who like to smoke. But that has not happened, he said.

“I guess we haven’t done a good job in getting the word out that bowling centers are smoke-free,” Spiegel said, adding that he is increasing advertising to promote bowling to nonsmokers.

Under the state law, for now people can still smoke in the bar areas of bowling alleys and restaurants. But next January, the law will ban smoking in all bars as well.

“That will have a much greater impact,” said David Osborn, operating manager of San Dimas-based West Lanes Recreation Centers.

Like some restaurants and other bowling alleys, Osborn’s company has put in a bigger bar area in some of his bowling centers. But even that hasn’t helped the bowling industry in Southern California, which as a whole had been heading down even before the smoking ban.

As a result, Osborn said, the bank repossessed one of its three bowling centers, in Sun City, because business just kept on sinking.

In the last year, only a few employers have been fined for flouting the law. Cynthia Hallett, the smoke-free project coordinator for Los Angeles County, said she’s unaware of any citations for violating the antismoking law in Los Angeles County. And in Orange County, health expert Marilyn Cowan said it was only recently that a business in her county was cited.

That notoriety went to Cafe Lu, one of several dozen Vietnamese-operated cafes in Little Saigon. Tom Rackleff, a Westminster police detective, said he has given formal warnings to 15 to 20 such cafes in Little Saigon. Overall, Rackleff thinks many people haven’t been complying with the law in his city, but he said local enforcement has more important things to do than to act as a sort of smoke patrol.

Rackleff, a special investigator whose detail includes vice and organized crime, said he stumbled into Cafe Lu when he was searching for a missing person. After seeing what he called a cloud of smoke in the air, Rackleff said, he issued a warning. He said he wrote out the citations for the cafe manager and two patrons after returning later and noticing continuing signs of smoking.

Anthony Tran, an aerospace engineer who owns Cafe Lu, said that last month he removed the ashtrays and posted a no-smoking sign in his shop. Last week, Tran pleaded not guilty to the citation in Municipal Court.

Tran said that although 95% of his customers smoke, many have stopped lighting up inside his cafe. He said he has instructed his manager to gently tell smokers to step outside if they want to light up.

But Tran also said it will take time for his customers to get used to the law. “It’s a touchy issue here,” he said. “We are losing business.”