Non-Smoking Restaurants in North Carolina

[cranberries]

Smoking in restaurants is an issue that everyone can relate to. I have spoken to past smokers and current smokers as well as non smokers. Seems there are a wide variations of thoughs on this subject.

Do you want your favorite restaurant to be a smoke free restaurant?

Is it time for all restaurants to become smokefree?

** I was at a McDonalds last month and it was suppose to be a fast food place but one person was holding their cigarette, yet never inhaled it while she was there. It just waved in the air.

Most people I have talked to says it is just a matter of time and it is coming soon. Has anyone heard of this and would you support the idea of a smoke free environments?

[RaleighRob]

It's still a long time coming.

I've heard many anti-smoking advocate groups' biggest problem in this state is that there's actually a state law that bans any local government (city/county) from implementing their own restaurant smoking bans!!

So they're working at this point, not to ban smoking in NC's restaurants, but just to try to at least get the state to drop THAT law, so that the cities and counties could decide for themselves!

If that were successful, THEN you would see it begin to happen....places like the Triangle cities (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and maybe even Cary) and Asheville would probably be the first ones to do it. Maybe Wilmington too, and other tourist-heavy towns.

But that's the first step.

In the meantime there are tons of places doing it voluntarily, thank goodness! The Triangle alone is full of them. Places without bars are the most likely places to do it...but also some small places that find it too pricy to provide separate sections (like Hayes Barton Cafe in Raleigh) or places that depend on a liberal clientale (like Irregardless Cafe).

[Roadgeek]

We really need smoke free restaurants. One time I was eating a hot dog at a BBQ restaurant, and I inhaled someone's smoke while I was eating.

[ezcheese]

most restaurants i go to are smoke free. i wasn't aware that it's still a big issue.

[NCMike1981]

Are there still fast food places in NC that still have smoking sections? I haven't been in one where people were smoking for probably 3 or so years so I was wondering...The last time was McDonalds in Carolina Beach probably back in 2002 or 2003...

[RaleighRob]

^ I think I saw a Hardee's off I-95 near the VA border with smokers in it.

[MZT]

There just isn't as much public smoking going on today as there was when I was a kid.

I think most people have come to accept not smoking in public indoor locations, as part of normal restaurant behavior... kind of like taking your trash to the wastebucket. A few people don't follow the conventions, but most will.

[suburban george3]

Most restaurants in the state offer at least non-smoking sections. However, sometimes they aren't true sections where the section is completely separated from the other.

I won't eat in a smoking section or a smoking restaurant.

I think it's time, but due to our ties with tobacco, it'll be tough.

And to think, we used to could smoke in High School legally.

[NCMike1981]

I think when I was a freshman in High School back in the 1995/1996 school year there were still designated smoking areas outside for High School students and faculty. Then for the 1996/1997 year it was stated that only faculty and adult visitors could smoke outside during school hours and smoking was permitted on school grounds after hours during outdoor activites like at football games or something. Then at the start of the second semester of my senior year in 1999 they banned smoking on school grounds altogether.

[jednc]

Restaurants would be smart to ban smoking...most smokers eat like fiends when they can't smoke!

[sax184]

Yes, such a law is way overdue, and I mostly patronize non-smoking establishments.

I used to work near Lexington, NC, and lunch out was tough. Your choices for restaurants were not smoking and non-smoking.

They were:

-Smoking

-Extra Smoking

-More Smoke Than a Mid-80s Hair Band Video

[JDC]

Yikes. I think the state (and the rest of the country) should ban smoking in restaurants. I'm generally all about European lifestyles, but I just can't get on board with the smoking thing.

[RaleighRob]

Yikes. I think the state (and the rest of the country) should ban smoking in restaurants. I'm generally all about European lifestyles, but I just can't get on board with the smoking thing.

Actually, the trend in Europe is also starting to have smoking bans.

Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Malta, Sweden, Scotland all have them now, as do some of the "states" in Switzerland. Also, England will have a ban by this time next year....and in France, the legislature is working to get one passed soon.

[otherstream]

Are there still fast food places in NC that still have smoking sections?

I stopped in the McDonald's by Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem this afternoon and was surprised to see a big stack of dirty ashtrays by the trash can.

[Jerseyman4]

Actually, the trend in Europe is also starting to have smoking bans.

Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Malta, Sweden, Scotland all have them now

Maybe so about Italy but people still smoke in the bars all the time, at least in Sicily.

Since i am a non-smoker, i am biased that id like to see a smoking ban statewide so i dont personally have to deal with smoke but at the same time, I dont want to see a ban because it would hurt many mom & pop shops. The chain restaurants would do fine with or without a smoking ban.

[RaleighRob]

^ Heh...well, not to stereotype, but Sicily hasn't often been a place where they follow the law to the letter, ya know!

And I'm not sure if I agree that a smoking ban would hurt the mom & pops the most. At least when it comes to restaurants (bars may be a different thing). Here in the Triangle, from what I've seen, the mom&pop restaurants are like three times as likely to be smoke-free as the chains are (not necessarily counting fast food, but casual place chains like applebees, etc).

[Jerseyman4]

^ Heh...well, not to stereotype, but Sicily hasn't often been a place where they follow the law to the letter, ya know!

And I'm not sure if I agree that a smoking ban would hurt the mom & pops the most. At least when it comes to restaurants (bars may be a different thing). Here in the Triangle, from what I've seen, the mom&pop restaurants are like three times as likely to be smoke-free as the chains are (not necessarily counting fast food, but casual place chains like applebees, etc).

, thats Sicily for ya

Im going from a NJ/NYC point of view that the smoking bans that have been around already have hurt mom & pop establishments. As much as im happy to not be around smoke anymore, i cant be selfish either.

[ILoveCallingNCHome]

Do you want your favorite restaurant to be a smoke free restaurant?

Personally I'd love for ALL places in the public to be smoke free, but especially restaurants. I think that the only way it will come to pass is for the health issue to be pressed. If it is seen by legislators for the common good/health of all to pass a smoking ban-then it will happen. We're not talking personal liberties being taken away, we are talking about one's right to breath clean healthy air when out in public.

It may take time-but hopefully it will happen eventually.

[cranberries]

Yes, such a law is way overdue, and I mostly patronize non-smoking establishments.

I used to work near Lexington, NC, and lunch out was tough. Your choices for restaurants were not smoking and non-smoking.

They were:

-Smoking

-Extra Smoking

-More Smoke Than a Mid-80s Hair Band Video

too funny on the choices...

When they asked me, I would reply " You mean choking or gasping ".

[cranberries]

Maybe so about Italy but people still smoke in the bars all the time, at least in Sicily.

Since i am a non-smoker, i am biased that id like to see a smoking ban statewide so i dont personally have to deal with smoke but at the same time, I dont want to see a ban because it would hurt many mom & pop shops. The chain restaurants would do fine with or without a smoking ban.

If every restaurant (ban smoking) how can that hurt mom and pop? It only hurts when there ISN'T a ban and mom/pop has a policy against it.

If every place doesn't let people smoke, your choice is to eat out without smoking or eat at home.

Also, if food and service is good enough, people will go no matter what.

Think of the movie theatres(smoking ban), I don't see them going under and I don't see empty busses(again smoking ban) either. There is no smoking in any Federal Building - people still use banks and post offices. Smoking bans work.

[Jerseyman4]

^Im referring mostly to mom & pop bar/restaurant establishments.

[MR-2]

I don't think anti-smoking legislation is necessary. There just isn't enough smoking to merit it. Usually restaurants have a smoking and nonsmoking section, and everyone gets what they want. Besides, the whole civil liberties thing.

[Jerseyman4]

^We are losing our civil liberties every year, in thanks of Osama and Bush

[RaleighRob]

I don't think anti-smoking legislation is necessary. There just isn't enough smoking to merit it. Usually restaurants have a smoking and nonsmoking section, and everyone gets what they want. Besides, the whole civil liberties thing.

In just about every restaurant that I've ever been to that had separate smoking/nonsmoking sections, there was SO little separating the two, that the smoke easily moved from one side to the next. Unless a restaurant actually goes through the trouble of building a complete separate room with a full wall between them, and a completely separate ventilation/ac system, then it just does not work!

Making other people breathe your toxic fumes and giving them cancer is NOT a civil liberty.

[MR-2]

The link between second-hand smoke and cancer is dubious. Allergies aside, I'm skeptical it would be possible to get any long term lung problems from brief exposure to trace amounts of tar and carbon monoxide.

Otherwise, we'd all die of automobile fumes in our 50s.

*NOT a smoker.