The Rhode Island Workers' Safety Act, signed by Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 last summer, will ban smoking in all public facilities beginning March 1, 2005. Approved by the General Assembly on June 17, the law forbids smoking in bars, clubs, restaurants, malls, sports arenas, offices, taxis and any place of employment.
Only smoking clubs, such as cigar bars, and Rhode Island's two gambling facilities - Lincoln Park and Newport Grand - are exempt from the ban. Though bars with Class C or D liquor licenses and fewer than 10 employees can wait until Oct. 1, 2006, to implement the policy, very few locations around the Brown campus qualify for the provision.
Most College Hill restaurants do not currently allow smoking. Those that do are accepting the policy without opposition, and some suggest it is a positive change.
"I quit smoking six months ago, so for me it is a blessing," said Kostas Karampetsos, general manager of Kartabar on Thayer Street. "From my understanding everybody thinks it's a good thing."
Both Kartabar and Paragon currently allow smoking at the bar (and restaurant, although with limits), but will implement the ban when it comes into effect in March.
Fish Company, however, tentatively plans to prohibit smoking sometime in January. A Fishco bar manager said he expects the ban will hurt business.
Jennifer Roberts, general manager of Paragon, said that while the law will affect every food and beverage business in the state, some Rhode Island towns are already smoke-free and "pretty much everybody just gets used to it."
"You're not going to stop going out to a restaurant or a bar because you're not allowed to smoke," Roberts said. "They're going to come here or they're going to stay home."
Nicholas Mackris, co-owner and managing partner of Andreas, is similarly straightforward about the change. "It's not a negative thing, and obviously we're going to have to comply," Mackris said. "But a lot of college kids smoke ... so I do think it'll affect businesses around this area in particular."
But many Brown students expressed relief that they would no longer be victims of secondhand smoke. "As an asthma sufferer, I'm looking forward to the ban," said Greg Kuwaye '08.
Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New York, Florida, California, Delaware, Idaho and Utah and several cities - including Boston - already have smoking bans in place. Students from those places say eating in partially smoky restaurants has been far more of an adjustment than the upcoming ban will be.
"I've gotten so used to eating a burger at a bar and tasting the burger instead of tasting half burger and half Marlboro Red that it's weird going to places and tasting food with the mix of cigarettes," said Boston native and non-smoker Luke Harris '07.
Charisma Levonleigh '08 from Santa Barbara, Calif., said that while she favors the ban, she is sympathetic to the effect it will have on her friends who do smoke. "In New England because the winter is so bad, I feel bad asking people to step outside and smoke," she said.
A sophomore who described himself as a "purely social smoker" said he has seen the effect a smoking ban had on the sidewalks of his hometown, New York City. "It pisses smokers off and some actually stop smoking, but the real smokers just smoke outside," he said. "So you have a herd of smokers outside, and you can't walk, and babies can't be pushed on their strollers, and it creates a whole new form of societal atmosphere."
State Sen. Susan Sosnowki, who sponsored the law, said she expects it will change the state's atmosphere for the better. After pushing similar legislation for the past three years, her efforts were rewarded by a State Senate vote of 25-7 on May 3 with the support of several organizations, including the American Cancer Society and Heart and Lung Associations.
"It's time we cleaned the air in Rhode Island," she said.
