Some Tenleytown businesses said they are not overly worried about new D.C. legislation that would outlaw smoking in most indoor public places.
Last week, the D.C. Council's Health Committee approved legislation that would ban smoking in all bars and restaurants in the District by 2007, according to The Washington Post.
The legislation would outlaw smoking in indoor public buildings at the time of its enactment, which could be as early as this December. However, the law would allow bars, clubs and taverns time to make the transition until 2007.
"We are not telling [people] that they can't smoke - just do it outside," said Angela Bradley, co-founder of Smokefree D.C., a nonprofit group that is pushing for the law.
Bradley said smoking indoors where employees and non-smokers are puts their health at risk.
"[Smoke] has over 4,000 chemicals and the EPA has classified it as a [very dangerous] carcinogen," Bradley said. "The [D.C.] Restaurant Association, who receives money from tobacco companies, is lobbying against it. Some restaurants we talked to would love to have the law because they don't want to anger some of the customers."
Opponents of the smoking ban fear that business will suffer in bars and restaurants because smokers will choose to go places where they can smoke.
Marcus Airieta, a manager at Ruby Tuesday on Wisconsin Avenue, and Atriana Auijano, lunch manager at Guapo's, both said they think their businesses will stay the same. There are only a few spots in both restaurants where patrons can smoke currently, they said
The proposed law notes that people can still smoke on the patios and porches of restaurants as long as they do not go inside while smoking. It also makes exceptions for cigar-bars and hotel rooms, and allows exemptions for certain businesses that can demonstrate a financial strain if the law were to be enacted, which Bradley said she thinks could become a loophole in the new law.
Student smokers are in full opposition to the proposed ban.
"I can understand why people don't want to be around it, but why should they get any special privileges?" said Amy Taylor, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences and a smoker of four years. "I don't really like it - I kind of like smoking inside ... if you don't want to be around, sit somewhere else."
Taylor said she thinks the law is "ganging up" on smokers, and wants the law to be more lax or nonexistent.
Bradley said she wants to take some of Chicago's pieces of legislation on their possible smoking ban. The city has set numerous restrictions on what a business must do to show that it will suffer a severe financial strain if the measure is enacted in order to receive a waiver.
Chicago's legislation is much more outlined and strict in how exemptions to the law are handled than the one currently awaiting a final vote in D.C., she said. Chicago is at about the same point in the process as D.C. in becoming smoke-free.
There are smoking bans in nine states, and most of California has been smoke-free since 1995. Montgomery County in Maryland is one of the closest areas with a smoking ban similar to what D.C. smoking ban supporters want. Montgomery County's restaurant business has increased since their legislation was enacted, Bradley said.
