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News-Gazette, January 2003

Smoking, dining no longer mix at Urbana Cafe

By Debra Pressey

Courier Cafe owner Allen Strong and employee Rose Barnes of Urbana staff the cash register at the downtown Urbana restaurant, which recently became a smoke-free establishment.

URBANA -- For years, Allen Strong has been refereeing the conflicts between smokers and nonsmokers at his Urbana restaurant, Courier Cafe.

Thirteen years ago, when he opened his other Urbana restaurant, Silvercreek, Strong avoided the touchy smoking issue altogether by making it a smoke-free building.

He thinks the time has come to follow suit at Courier Cafe. The restaurant at 111 N. Race St. has become a smoke-free premises.

"It was a tough decision for me to make," Strong said. "As long as tobacco is recognized as a legal substance, I respect people's right to smoke."

But, he adds, a smoke-free Courier Cafe will undoubtedly be healthier for everyone -- employees and customers alike.

One smoker, Tammy Cobb of Charleston, said it doesn't bother her a bit to see another restaurant ban smoking. A court reporter at the Champaign County Courthouse, Cobb said she typically sits in nonsmoking sections of restaurants since her husband doesn't smoke, and she refrains from smoking around other nonsmokers out of courtesy.

"I think if you want to smoke, you'll need to work your schedule around where other people go," she said.

Strong said his smoking customers seem fairly resigned to the Courier joining the ranks of nonsmoking restaurants.

State law allows smoking in specially designated smoking areas at public gathering spots such as restaurants, but many dining places ban smoking entirely.

Some cities, such as New York City and Boston, and the states of California and Delaware ban smoking in all public places, and Florida voters recently approved a similar measure to take effect this summer, according to Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association of Illinois.

Closer to home, Drea points out that Chicago is also considering a measure to ban smoking at restaurants.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has been encouraging restaurant owners statewide to adopt smoke-free policies voluntarily. Restaurants that take part in the state's Smoke-Free Restaurant Recognition Program are awarded special certificates and listed on the department's Web site.

The recognition program is designed partly to raise public awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke, a combination of the smoke from burning cigarettes and that exhaled by smokers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says secondhand smoke contains 43 chemicals that cause cancer and estimates that secondhand smoke kills 3,000 nonsmokers in America a year.

What's more, according to Campaign for a Healthy Smoke-Free Chicago, workers exposed to secondhand smoke are 20 percent to 30 percent more likely to develop cancer and are exposed to a 25 percent to 35 percent higher risk of coronary death.

The group also says restaurant workers are exposed to more secondhand smoke than workers in other professions, and ventilation systems are incapable of removing the toxins of secondhand smoke from the air.

The group also contends smoking costs businesses $1300 a year in additional health costs for each employee who smokes, plus additional maintenance and cleaning costs throughout the building.

With one restaurant that banned smoking and one that didn't, Strong said he experienced the extra cleaning costs associated with smoking. Once a year, he does a top-to-bottom cleaning and redecorating at both restaurants, but there's traditionally been more work to do at the Courier, he said.

The Department of Public Health Web site lists 137 restaurants and coffee shops in Champaign County that are smoke-free, though the majority of those listed in Champaign-Urbana are fast-food and pizza shops and ethnic restaurants. There are 19 smoke-free restaurants listed in Vermilion County, 30 in Douglas County and nine in Piatt County.

One of the Champaign restaurants listed, HomeTown Buffet, has been smoke-free since it opened.

Josh Bales, HomeTown Buffet's service manager, said at one time individual restaurants in the chain could choose whether they wanted to offer separate smoking areas, but now the company prohibits smoking at all its locations.

Most customers in Champaign seem to prefer a nonsmoking environment, he said, but a few are sometimes unhappy with the restriction.

"Sometimes when they find out it's nonsmoking, they ask for their money back," he said.

Some restaurants continue to restrict smoking to separate rooms or areas, though nonsmoking customers still have the option of dining in smoking sections.

Joe Kennedy, general manager at O'Charley's in Champaign, said the majority of that restaurant's space is designated nonsmoking, but smoking is allowed in the bar, where there are also some tables for dining.

The arrangement seems to suit everyone, he said. The bar area is generally able to accommodate anyone who wants to dine and smoke, and a filtration system keeps the smell of smoke out of the rest of the restaurant, he said.

Kennedy said he has rarely heard a smoker or nonsmoker complain.

"The only time I've ever heard anything is if somebody was in the restroom and someone had a cigarette in there. I guess the smoke kind of lingers," he said.