Though there were inklings as far back as the 1600s, the fact that smoking kills has been scientific gospel for longer than a century.
Though there were inklings as far back as the 1600s, the fact that smoking kills has been scientific gospel for longer than a century. Still, even after the U.S. Surgeon General's warning in 1964, tobacco companies helped propagate and perpetuate the myth that Cigarettes just weren't that bad for you.
That idea, of course, has been discredited, and the cigarette companies punished for their behavior. Discredited, too, has been the corollary about second-hand smoke and its danger to children and nonsmokers.
But the myths surrounding tobacco haven't disappeared. The latest is that a ban on smoking will destroy the hospitality industry, on which so much of Hampton Roads depends. The theory proceeds this way: People won't want to drink where they can't also smoke.
The profitable union of booze and Cigarettes isn't a new idea. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first American professor of chemistry, described the consequences of tobacco use: "One of the usual effects of smoaking and chewing is thirst. This thirst cannot be allayed by water.... A desire of course is excited for strong drinks, and these when taken between meals soon lead to intemperance and drunkenness."
It follows, argue tobacco advocates, that if you ban smoking in restaurants, people will stay home. When everybody smoked a half-century ago, a ban might've done damage. But smoking rates have been falling for 20 years now, and today about 20 percent of the adult population smokes Cigarettes. Part of the decline, undoubtedly, has come because it is harder to smoke in American public spaces.
Even today, there are probably More smokers on a Saturday night when beer is served, but the simple fact is that fewer Americans smoke now because we know better. And despite the commonwealth's long love of tobacco, fewer Virginians smoke than in the average state.
It then stands to reason that banning smoking would actually serve More customers than allowing it. A smoking ban is undoubtedly healthier for employees, but is it healthier for business?
It is. Smoking has been forbidden in cities and states across America. In California, hospitality receipts have risen every year after the ban. In New York, according to the city, receipts rose 8.7 percent in the year after smoking was banned. A survey by Zagat - the restaurant review people - showed that 23 percent of respondents were eating out More often.
Smoking has been banned in bars and restaurants across America, with no damage to business. Still, though, tobacco companies and their friends claim that the nicotine-stained ceiling will tumble. Their argument, quite simply, is a myth designed to scare business owners into maintaining things as they are.
As Norfolk City Council gathers Tuesday to talk about barring smoking in all of its restaurants, it should keep that in mind. And this: Definitive studies have shown over and over that smoking bans - at worst - have no effect on sales. Several studies have concluded that they boost sales, even when the surrounding jurisdictions allow smoking in bars and restaurants.
Norfolk has a remarkable opportunity this week. It can do right by customers and by employees, who are now forced to breathe second-hand smoke. Perhaps More important, though, Norfolk can provide leadership to the rest of the commonwealth, and prove once and for all that it is no myth that doing good is also good for business.