Customers Reject Smoking Ban in Bars
However all know that Sports Bars can’t work without smoking, Gov. Mark Parkinson signed a new bill which would ban smoking in working areas, restaurants, bars, and most other public areas.
So, the new bill, which will becomes a real law on July 1st, will substitute local bans as those in Lawrence and Overland Park. The new legislation also makes smoking illegal within 10-foot areas of a doorway.
Heffner, bar owner explained: ”I’m worried about the loss of business, but more are concerned the people who come to the bar for to smoke with their friends. For example last year there was a 30 percent decrease in business for bars and restaurants in small towns and counties with smoking bans.” He added that he will do what he needs to do for to protect his business.
Even customers are against the new legislation. For example, Roger Jones said that he opposed the ban too because he declared that he only smoke when drink beer. Smoking was banned in Lawrence and Johnson County cities, so, De Soto is one of the few places where is intended to ban smoking too.
The owner of Beer Thirty, Connie Shackelford, said that the ban would not affect her business because her bar is private. But, she added that anyway the state should stop approving such legislations. “I do not agree with this ban. When you have your own business, you should have also the right to decide where to smoke and where not, because everybody has the right to choose,” she said.
Even non-smokers can’t accept such a rule. For example, Tom Tilden a customer who does not smoke declared that this ban was not necessary. “It doesn’t disturb me. If the smoking comes to me, I can go to the other part of the bar and to leave from it. It’s useless,” Mr. Tilden explained. She knows that secondhand smoke has meaningly higher concentrations of toxins among non-smokers than among smokers. In general all people know that second-hand smoking is bad for them, but unfortunately they don’t know how bad it is.


