Smoking ban gives E.L. mixed feelings

A statewide bill that would ban smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants does not make exemptions for businesses like hookah lounges and cigar bars — and at least one East Lansing business owner is concerned.

The bill, approved Thursday by the Michigan Senate, will next seek approval from the Michigan House of Representatives.

Donald McGrath, owner of Blue Midnight Hookah Lounge, 330 Albert Ave., which opened in January, said he hopes the House uses common sense when deciding a statewide ban on smoking in workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

McGrath said he approached the Michigan House about a similar bill in December 2007, and the House excused hookah lounges from that proposal before the bill was dropped.

“We’re not a restaurant or a bar,” McGrath said. “Smoking is our business.”

Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, said legislators could modify the bill to make such exceptions before it would be implemented on April 1, 2009. The bill could be approved as early as Tuesday, he said.

Meadows said he favors the bill because it will improve business for East Lansing restaurants and bars by drawing in customers previously driven away by smoking.

“It actually makes business for them,” he said.

At El Azteco, 225 Ann St., restaurant manager Lupe Holguin said she hasn’t noticed a loss of business for local restaurants who have gone smoke-free. The restaurant will remove its smoking section within one to two weeks regardless of the House’s decision, she said.

A study requested by the Lansing-based Campaign for Smokefree Air found that eliminating smoking would produce no adverse effects on the state’s restaurant and bar industry.

Lansing Community College freshman Carly Gerhardt said she smokes and is against the ban in East Lansing.

“If you’re in a bar atmosphere, you should expect smoking,” she said.

Gerhardt, who works at Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing, said she hears customers amazed to find a bar permitting smoking.

The number of smoke-free restaurants and bars in Michigan has increased to 5,100 — an increase of 131 percent from 1998, said Andy Deloney, spokesperson for the Michigan Restaurant Association.

The association has been one of the bill’s opponents.

Deloney said he was surprised and disappointed to find Michigan lawmakers attempting to force restaurant and tavern owners to enforce what already appears to be happening.

Meadows said customers will still be able to smoke at outdoor tables.

“People will adjust to the fact that they can’t smoke in restaurants,” he said.

Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008