Bar owners protest state smoking ban

State bar owners have been raising opposition to the statewide smoking ban in bars and restaurants, claiming to legislators and courts that the ban is ruining their business.

While restaurants have come to appreciate the ban’s unforeseen effect of increasing sales, the president of the N.C. Bar, Pub & Tavern Association recently wrote a letter to the N.C. General Assembly urging legislators to exclude profit-making bars from the ban.

Sales at Gate City Billiards Club, a private club in Greensboro, have decreased 25 percent since the 2010 ban , said Don Liebes, the club’s owner and president of the association.

“We’re different from restaurants,” he said, adding that 75 percent of his customers smoke. “The ban put us at a competitive disadvantage.”

Because of the ban, the club has lost $30,000 since January, Liebes said. On an average Friday night, the club now serves 30 fewer customers — about a 15 percent decrease.

“We’re not making any money,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before we go under.”

Bar and restaurant owners in the state were initially concerned that the ban would be an excessive regulation, said Brad Hurley, co-owner of the 42nd Street Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill in Raleigh and chairman-elect of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association.

But some restaurant owners now say the ban has boosted sales. In a letter sent Oct. 5 by the restaurant association to the legislature, one restaurant owner reportedly observed a 25 to 30 percent growth in sales since 2009, reports The Daily Tar Heel.

Smoking: Help is at hand

NEW figures show that just one-third of all smokers who aimed to give up smoking in 2009 were successful in kicking the habit, a statistic that clearly indicates the desire to quit but possibly the absence of the correct support for them to effectively do so.
As many people endeavour to stick to resolutions made in January to stop, this statistic demonstrates the challenge that they will face during 2010 to remain smoke-free.
Motivation to stop differs from person to person and often incorporates more than one factor. Reasons can include the related costs, health issues, legislation, social aspects, home life or work.
The key factor for many people seems to be committing to stopping too hastily or without the relevant consideration and dedication – in fact, 78% of people who make New Year resolutions fail in their attempts, becoming dispirited and despondent.
Those attempting to banish cigarettes from their lives must be committed and should aim to seek help from sources relevant to their own needs and past experiences.
A new smoking-cessation service in Aberdeen looks to motivate and inspire individuals to stop smoking, equipping them with the skills and self-inspiration to extinguish those cigarettes forever and achieve their goal.
Set Free from Smoking encourages participants to name a date for stopping and, most importantly, empowers them with the drive and determination to stick to it and stop permanently.
Kenny Keir, an IT co-ordinator with a major oil company in Aberdeen, was a recent workshop participant.
He said: “Previous attempts to stop using only willpower were unsuccessful and I knew I needed additional, more structured support to quit. The Set Free from Smoking approach offered me this and I have now been free from cigarettes for three months. In this short time, I already notice an improved fitness level and no longer need to incorporate visits to the smoking shelter into my day at work or stand out in the cold with the other smokers.”
Like Kenny, many people see smoking cessation as a personal battle. Of course, for the most part, this is true, but within the workplace, many employers now recognise their responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their employees and look to support them in any quest they may have to improve personal wellbeing.
As well as the health effects on their workforce, employers are also very aware of the potential economic and business benefits of encouraging a smoke-free workforce, and many choose to develop smoking policies in line with their corporate-social-responsibility strategy.
HR professionals are increasingly aware of the detrimental effects that smoking can have on the workplace.
John Booth, director of HR and training at VSA in Aberdeen, said: “VSA employs over 600 people in the city and surrounding areas, predominantly within our care homes. Every company has to deal with the issue of staff going for unofficial smoke breaks and the resentment this creates from non-smoking staff.
“The importance of managing scheduled smoking breaks within the care sector is vital as adequate cover must be available at all times and animosity between staff avoided.
“Any encouragement and focus that staff who are keen to stop smoking can be given is positive as the health and wellbeing of VSA’s staff is critical to the care that we provide to thousands of local people.”
As well as time, productivity and staff morale issues, other concerns within the workplace include absenteeism and safety.
Surprisingly, 20% of workplace fires are caused by discarded cigarettes or matches. Not only is there the very obvious safety impact, but it can also mean that a company’s insurance premiums rise, therefore affecting its bottom line.
Astonishingly, it is estimated that the resource cost in terms of losses from smoking-related fires is estimated at about £4million per annum in Scotland alone.
Absenteeism can also affect a company’s profits, as well as impacting on the overall business process if no adequate cover is available.
Research shows that the estimated cost of smoking-related absence in Scotland is £40million per year, while total productivity losses are estimated at about £450million per year.
It is clear that smoking within a company can throw up many issues and factors to take into consideration. However, employers must work with staff to improve their individual workplace situation, ensuring that they do not isolate or cause contention between themselves and their smoking employees.
The inspiration for Set Free from Smoking comes from Margaret Brown, herself a heavy ex-smoker, who delivers the workshop using an inspiring and powerful mix of techniques that allows participants to take control and overcome their addiction.
With a background in corporate leadership development and employee motivation, Margaret transfers these skills and methods into her workshops, tailored to both individual and corporate participants.
For corporate clients, Margaret will ensure that the workshop supports the company’s vision and objectives, incorporating relevant corporate language.
Her successful track record in leadership, motivation and behavioural change has seen her work on major leadership projects with various corporations, including Shell, Schlumberger, Subsea 7 and latterly Marathon Oil, which has achieved recognition within the prestigious Top 100 Best Companies to work for in the UK for the past three consecutive years.

How To Smoke On The Road: Finding A Smoker-Friendly Airport

In the past fifteen years, the premium-cigar industry found itself in rebound. After decades of competition from cigarettes, the aging of its customer base, and overall consumer trends indicating a decline in smoking in general (we'll return to this in a moment), many observers figured cigars were done for. Then came 1992. The fourth quarter of that year showed some of the first industry growth in years, and this trend metastasized in coming years. By 1996, the industry was seeing 36 percent first-quarter growth.
But cigars returned at an ironic time. High-profile class-action suits, controversy over Joe Camel, and decreasing general consumer interest in smoking, among other things, led to an increase in smoking bans in public buildings, offices, and, eventually, whole cities. Airports helped lead the trend; among the major travel hubs where you're no longer welcome to light up are Los Angeles' LAX and Dallas-Fort Worth.
All of which raises a question - if you're a smoker going on vacation, what are your options?
Thankfully, the web site SmokingSection has, aggregating information sent in by smoking readers, listed and ranked over fifty major airports by their friendliness to smokers. Their rankings, like those of your high-school English teacher, run from A to E: A for airports where you can smoke by the waiting gate; E for airports where you not only can't smoke indoors, but the nearest smoker-friendly outside areas require a small trip in themselves (and may be unacceptably far from takeoff gates).
So where should you travel if you want to smoke, not only when you reach your destination but on the way there? Well, the answer seems to be: Texas. The Lone Star State offers the only A-ranked airport out of the dozens surveyed. That's Dallas Love Field, a smallish airport that receives only flights from major area transport provider Southwest Airlines. Frequently-flying cigar smokers who live in that wildcatter's capital should feel lucky.
Texas offers us a B airport as well - these are the places where you can't smoke near the gates, but that do offer smoker-friendly bars, restaurants, and/or lounges nearby. That would be at Lubbock - the same city from which Buddy Holly hailed. (But don't take that as a bad omen.) Other southern and southwestern states are well-represented among the B airports, which makes sense, given the close links between many of these states and the history of the tobacco industry. Restaurants at New Mexico's Albuquerque Airport, as well as at airports in Charlotte, North Carolina; Charleston, West Virginia; Phoenix, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Norfolk, Virginia; and - appropriately enough - Richmond, Virginia, that famous tobacco town. (Where would American smoking be without Virginia?)
Orange County, California, offers an airport named for John Wayne, and appropriately the tobacco-loving Duke's namesake airport also offers B-class accommodations. So do the major regional airports in Tampa, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, and New York City (both JFK and LaGuardia), in several large cities in Ohio (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton), in Fairbanks, Alaska; Moline, Illinois; and Ontario, Canada. Visitors to our nation's capitol can also light up at a few of Washington, DC's airport bars, though these are apparently hard to find.
It's a good thing that the weather in Texas and California is generally fairly clement, because some major airports in both of these states ban all indoor smoking - but outdoor smoking areas are available at a conveniently close distance. The aforementioned Dallas-Fort Worth and LAX both disallow indoor smoking, which accounts for their C rating, but they do invite smoking customers to step outside. The Worcester, Massachusetts airport has a similar arrangement. (Enjoy that brisk Massachusetts air.) These are the C-class airports.
After that it gets dicier. Quite a few major American airports seem to fall into the D or E classes, with smoking accommodations within the airport that require a bit of a hike, or (in the case of the E-class airports) nothing at all but outside areas located far from gates. Many D airports offer those ubiquitous glass lounges where smokers are invited to light up and take a load off; these include Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Las Vegas (McCarran), and Atlanta (Hartfield). Happy hunting!

Has The Price Of Cigarettes Made You Want To Quit

With the economy the way it is now days, there are a many people that wish they would have given up smoking once and for all a long time ago. Now that the price of a pack of cigarettes is reaching nearly five dollars a pack and even more in many places, it is a good time to seriously start thinking about giving them up. No matter what age you are, unless you are just plain wealthy, a heavy smoker these days can cost as much as 20 % of a pay check of average working men and women in the United States who make minimum wage or a little more.

Going back just only a few years ago, cigarette prices were around two dollars a pack, but with the new taxes being applied, they are now doubled in price. If you are a smoker and think that is bad, the states are beginning to apply their own tax on top of the one the government just put in place. This is similar to the gasoline issue in that it keeps going up, but we need gasoline to travel, we do not need cigarettes at all. Spend nothing on cigarettes and you will have plenty left to pay for that expensive fuel.

Finally, the cost of gasoline has peaked for the time being and came back down. Now you can at least make it to work without taking out a loan to get there. But smokers out there need to get ready to see the price of cigarettes be the back up for a tax revenue increase. Even though the extreme taxing of cigarettes might not be something that everyone, especially smokers, agree with, because they might actually go up in price so much that it will force some people to have to quit, but is that such a bad thing in itself?

When you are addicted to nicotine and what ever the thousands of chemicals are that go in the processing of cigarettes, it is similar to being an addict hooked on some of the harder drugs like heroine or methamphetamine. It is almost as difficult for some to stop smoking as it is for these other drug users to kick their habits. What is amazing to some people is that cigarettes are killers just like any of these other drugs, yet they are still legal for adults to buy. What many people do not understand about the government is how they determine that it is perfectly alright to tax one drug like cigarettes to death, and outlaw others. There is the argument that some drugs like methamphetamine or heroine alters the personality of the user and this is true. But have you ever seen a smoker who is really addicted to cigarettes when they can not get one? That also can be a very ugly picture.