Musing On a Decade Old Smoking Ban In Salem

It was the end of the world as we knew it.

Businesses were going to die. Jobs were going to be lost. Revolution was in the air, and I had a front row seat.

On April 1, 2001, the Salem Board of Health, led by Joanne Scott, enacted Health Regulation #24, banning smoking in "all restaurants, bar areas of restaurants, bars, public waiting rooms, toilet rooms, and all areas of these establishments." It was the first smoking ban put into effect by any city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

At the time, I was working at the old Roosevelt's on Central Street. I worked mostly weekend nights on the door checking IDs and trying to identify and deter problems before they actually became problems.

As each night progressed, the room would slowly fill with a lingering, acrid smoke cloud that would create a haze thick enough to obscure the bright red neon beer sign hanging on the back wall. At nights end, the ashtrays on every table would be filled despite having been emptied multiple times. Staff would spend up to 30 minutes sweeping up hundreds of cigarette butts that had been tossed onto the carpet. 

During my shifts, I made it a point to spend as much time working on the outside of the door no matter the weather in order to breath some cleaner air. Many a morning after a shift I would wake up with a smokers cough as my body worked to clear the accumulated debris in my lungs. I didn't smoke, but was paying the smokers' price.

Salem restaurant owners fought this regulation with their time, effort and money. Diane Russo, my boss at Roosevelt's led the charge. She roared loudly in the press and protested by leading a picket team at 120 Washington St. She did media interviews, appeared on SATV with Leo Jodoin, and initially refused to comply with the regulation. This led to some interesting conflicts with the "smoking police." One night, she even had me remove them for the premises, which almost led to a physical altercation.

Roosevelt's got a few 50-dollar fines which Russo would pay with 50 one-dollar checks. She had a way of trying to make a point.

Over time, after a hearings in Superior Court and many an argument, the fight petered out. Business was affected initially, but after other communities enacted their own bans, and the state implemented a state-wide ban, things got better.

In the long run, banning smoking in restaurants was the right thing to do. I disagreed with it at first as I felt it would hurt business and cost jobs. That did not not come to pass.

The regulations, both at city level and state level, however, are not perfect. They lack consistency in scope and enforcement effort. They also favor one type of hospitality business over another.

Social clubs and other member driven organizations are still allowed to have smoking on their premises. There are rules prohibiting when smoking is allowed, depending on the presence of non-members or guests. These rules are not enforced and seldom does an inspection take place.

This is not right. A rule or a law is a rule or a law for everyone, or it is not a rule or a law.

Two social clubs in Salem, the and the Ward II have already stepped up and banned smoking in their  buildings. It is past time time for the others to do the same. This is only fair, as they do compete directly with public restaurants for business, and it is truly the right thing to do for the overall health of both their members and their guests.

Ten years later, history and results justify the smoking ban. Now, if we could just do something about those smokers who think the city is their ashtray.