Jennifer McDaniel has worked at Snooker's and The Green Room six days a week for the last nine years. "There's just dudes in here," she said of the pool hall, bar and sometime concert venue's clientele. "They're drinking coffee, they're smoking cigarettes, they're playing pool. That's what you do."
McDaniel smokes, as do most employees at Snooker's and The Green Room. They weren't particularly worried about the second-hand smoke they will soon be granted respite from by the Public Health and Workplace Safety Act, signed into law by Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 last June and effective this morning at 12 a.m.
But "all the ashtrays are going" in accordance with the new regulations, McDaniel said. Rhode Island is the seventh state to enact such a ban.
The bill was framed largely as a protective measure for employees - the Department of Health estimates that working an eight-hour shift in a smoky bar is equivalent to smoking 16 cigarettes.
"Not in this place," McDaniel said of health concerns at Snooker's and The Green Room.
"There was no one from here on that panel," she said, in reference to the bill's advocates. "It's a pool hall."
In light of the ban, which prevents smoking in almost all workplaces including restaurants and bars, she said "a few (employees) have quit (smoking), and a few more - including myself - are trying to quit. I had a meeting with my staff to find out what they are going to do, and half of them want to quit - (the ban) is kind of pushing them into it, although I think it's hard to say 'I'm not going to smoke' when you smoke a pack a day."
McDaniel said she isn't too worried about losing customers because of the ban. "Sure, some people aren't going to come here for a little while," she said, "but my question is, where else are you going to go? You can't go to New York, you can't go to Boston - it's going to leave people saying, 'Let's just go downtown.'"
There are a few small bars and private clubs that will be exempt from implementation until Oct. 1, 2006. Establishments with class C or class D liquor licenses and 10 or fewer employees are exempt from the law until this date. The exemption for Class D liquor licenses is limited to "distinctly private" locations, including "nonprofit or charitable organizations with defined membership," according to a document distributed by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
"We don't want to attract a certain kind of people (because we'll be one of the only places that allows smoking), but it's a small room, so we won't even have to worry about that," said Ken, a bartender at Wickenden Pub, which has a class C liquor license and meets the exemption requirements. He said he would probably put a walkway to a backyard smoking area when he is eventually forced to comply with the law.
Some restaurant and bar owners are less than happy about the application of the new law. At Paragon and Viva at 243 Thayer St., smoking used to be allowed everywhere after 10:30 p.m.
"It's idiotic that some people can (continue to smoke) and some people can't," said manager Armando Dias. "Our clientele - especially Viva's clientele - smokes. That's life. They're entitled to do so. Some customers aren't coming back."
Dias takes particular issue with the permanent exemption granted to the state's two gambling parlors, Newport Grand and Lincoln Park. Rhode Island will take in an estimated $255 million from the two casinos this year, and data from Delaware showed that casinos there lost significant amounts of money during the first year of that state's smoking ban, according to the Providence Journal.
"If the two casinos can do it - if the law was designed to help the workforce, which was how they sold the law - are we less concerned with their employees' health?" Dias asked. "Health is health. Apparently (the state) doesn't want to lose (its profits from the casinos). Neither do we," he said. "They love to talk about millions of dollars in health benefits that this law guarantees, but they're still allowing people (to smoke)."
Other states that have enacted smoking bans have not typically seen a decline in restaurants' economic performance.
"All we can do is trust the statistics that say that the numbers bounce back," Dias said. "That's the only bright side. Of course we're worried."
A manager of Andrea's, who wished to remain anonymous, was optimistic that economic performance in Rhode Island would not suffer as a result of the ban.
"There is a model. Other states have done it successfully," the manager said.
Andrea's, located at 268 Thayer St., used to permit smoking only at its bar. "If (the ban was for) a certain city or type of establishment, there would be more concern about hurting business," he said. "Since it's a statewide thing ... in the long-term I don't think business will be hurt."
Andrea's was displaying "no smoking" signs a day before the law took effect, in preparation for the law's mandate that business owners post signs indicating that it is illegal to smoke in their establishment.
"Is it fair? No. I don't think exemptions should be made. To be passed into law it should affect everyone," said the manager. "I don't agree (with the exemptions)," he said.
Joe Magno, manager of Z Bar & Grille at 244 Wickenden St., said he isn't worried about curbing what little smoking does take place at the bar.
"This is more of an upscale place," he said. "If you can't get through a meal without a cigarette - that's kind of ridiculous. We'll see how it goes."
Nick Kennedy '08 smokes about a pack of cigarettes each day and isn't sure yet how the smoking ban will influence his club-going.
"Because I'm from New York, I'm already used to this ban, but it was really nice to be able to smoke inside. That was one of my favorite parts of going to those places, having a social cigarette with friends, taking a break from the dance floor, even on the dance floor," he said.
Many of Kennedy's friends are smokers, and he said that some of them celebrated their last night of legal indoor smoking by going to Paragon and lighting up until midnight.
"At places like Lupo's where you have a lot of people smoking ... it'll be harder to light up," said Eric Kelmenson '08, who says he is "not a serious smoker" but is still disappointed about the ban. "We were going to go see Bob Weir and Ratdog on 4/20 there," he added with a smirk, "...but now I'm not so sure."
