Bar Patrons Back Ban on Smoking, State Poll Finds

Californians who frequent bars like the 9-month-old ban on smoking, according to a new poll.

A firm hired by the state Department of Health Services found that 65% of bar patrons surveyed approve of the law prohibiting smoking in bars and taverns.

That was up from 59% in a similar poll conducted in February and March, the department said.

The percentage of patrons who said they visit bars once a week or more and who support the law increased from 46% last winter to 59% in the new survey.

However, a Roseville bar owner who was fined last spring in one of the first tests of the new law says that he wonders where the pollsters found those bar patrons.

“All mine are not [supportive] and every other bar owner I know has the same idea I have,” said Bill Ostrander, owner of the Almond Tree Lounge. “I don’t know where they polled this.”

He said 90% of his patrons and all of his employees smoke.

“You come in here and you see all the people out on the patio smoking. My bar is empty,” he said.

A Placer County judge last March convicted Ostrander of two infractions and fined him $300.

State health officials said the poll shows that a growing majority of Californians like the law after living with smoke-free bars for months.

“Despite repeated attempts by special interest groups to overturn this important public health measure, the law remains in place,” said state Health Director Kim Belshe. “What’s more, contrary to doomsday predictions from tobacco industry front groups, Californians are still patronizing the 37,000 restaurant-bars and stand-alone bars in our state.”

Sixty-eight percent of poll respondents said it was very or somewhat important to have a smoke-free environment. The same percentage said they were very or somewhat concerned about the effects of secondhand smoke. Those percentages changed very little from the earlier poll.

Only 25% of the bar patrons surveyed said they are smokers.

The survey of 1,020 bar patrons was conducted Aug. 7-13 for the department by the Field Research Corp., which did the similar survey in February and March. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.