A tough anti-smoking law passed in El Paso, Texas has had no significant impact on restaurant and bar revenues there, according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers from the Atlanta-based CDC and the Texas Department of Health reached that conclusion after analyzing sales tax reports and mixed beverage receipts collected in El Paso between 1990 and 2002.
A ban on smoking in public areas and workplaces went into effect in the city on Jan. 2, 2002. Authorities in El Paso, which has more than 560,000 residents, levy fines of up to $500 for violations.
Five states and more than 70 other municipalities, including New York City, have instituted similar anti-smoking bans despite complaints that such measures hurt sales in restaurants and bars.
But the El Paso study found that restaurants and bars did not lose business because of the smoking ban.
“These findings are consistent with the results of studies in other municipalities that determined smoke-free indoor air ordinances had no effect on restaurant revenues,” the researchers said in their study.
Some 440,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to smoking and other tobacco use, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the federal government.
Anti-smoking advocates Thursday applauded the study’s findings and urged government officials to enact smoking bans in every state and community in the nation.
“The new study underscores why the public, policy makers and the media should treat with skepticism the claims of economic doom and gloom made by opponents of smoke-free laws,” William Corr, executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.
U.S. health officials want to cut the cigarette smoking rate in half to 12 percent or less by the end of the decade, although none of the 50 states are on track to meet that goal, according to the CDC. REUTERS