Colorado Breath: Healthy Links

Denver's Bars Choking on Smoke (2004)
City's bars choking on smoke

Air likened to brown cloud; report fuels debate on ban

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

June 29, 2004

The air in many Denver bars is worse than the city's brown cloud or the air that drifted to metro Denver during the huge Hayman Fire of 2002, a new study reports.

The report by Denver Environmental Health adds fuel to the debate over whether to ban smoking in city bars and restaurants.

The study of 22 bars found that one bar had 440 micrograms of fine particulates per cubic meter of air when several patrons were smoking.A second bar had a rate of 300 mg/cubic meter, and a third was at about 240 mg/cubic meter.

Denver declares a brown cloud day when the 24-hour average exceeds 50 mg/cubic meter.

All but two of the 19 smoking bars sampled exceeded the 50 mg/cubic meter level.

The report also said that during the first day of the Hayman Fire, June 9, 2002, the one-year average was at 200 mg/cubic meter. (However, readings on Denver-area air monitors climbed to 472-487 mg/cubic meter from 1-2 p.m. that day, the highest recording ever in the decades of air monitoring, according to the state's Air Pollution Control Division. A couple of hours later, when some people still were having difficulty breathing, the rate had dropped to about 200 mg/cubic meter.)

""The finding is startling,"" Denver City Councilwoman Carol Boigon said. ""It speaks for itself.""

Still, she said her main concern is the safety of children and ""children don't usually go into bars.""

Denver City Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez, who represents Denver's middle west side, and who generally supports a ban on smoking in bars, said, ""It helps illustrate how harmful secondhand smoke can be.""

Denver Environmental Health hired chemistry professor Larry Anderson of the University of Colorado at Denver to do the study, which was requested by council members.

Anderson used a device that samples the air for particulates smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.

Graduate students asked the owners' permission to do the sampling before proceeding. The students also tested three bars that didn't allow smoking. All three had particulates well below the ""brown cloud"" standard, Anderson said.

Anderson said being exposed to secondhand smoke has been shown to cause heart attacks and other health problems in several studies.

What's less certain is whether all fine particulates - whether from dust, smoke, soil, soot or other matter - are equally dangerous or whether some are worse than others.

City Council President Elbra Wedgeworth says despite the finding, she is reluctant to support a smoking ban that would hurt Denver bar and restaurant owners. She would support a regional ban so smokers couldn't cross over to, say, Glendale, Arvada or Englewood, to light up in bars.

None of her colleagues has put a smoking ban on the front burner, she said.

The previous council, which left office a year ago, considered but failed to pass a ban.

Still, some on the current council might be changing their minds.

""It's further proof that environmental tobacco smoke is bad for you,"" said Councilman Doug Linkhart.

He said he's been convinced for years that secondhand smoke is the worst environmental problem facing Denver residents, worse than outdoor air pollution.

He's not sure he would vote for a blanket ban. He empathizes with bar owners who might lose customers to suburbs that don't have bans, but also worries for bartenders and workers.

The argument that they can choose not to work there isn't convincing, he said. He notes that there are several regulations about air in coal mines, even though miners could choose to work elsewhere.

""We need to tighten regulations. I'm surprised that the EPA or OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) hasn't set standards for workers.""

Nor does he buy the argument that Denver shouldn't ban smoking until the suburbs do.

""It would be nice to have regional cooperations, but if we know it's the right thing to do, we should do it.""

Peter Meersman, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, said his group never has tried to argue that smoking isn't harmful.

Instead, association members ""want to preserve their rights to make business decisions based on customer demand,"" not government decree, he said.

Demand for smoke-free restaurants and bars is growing all the time, he said.

""Just 10 years ago, the number of nonsmoking restaurants was probably 20 to 30 percent,"" Meersman said. ""Now it's approaching 70 percent that are completely nonsmoking.""

Andrew Harper, who tended bar at several Denver restaurants until quitting six months ago, said it's a ""terrible"" revelation that he spent eight-hour shifts in air worse than on bad brown cloud days.

""It's ridiculous, no one should be subjected to that,"" said Harper, who is a member of BREATH - Bar and Restaurant Employees Against Tobacco Hazards.

""Bar workers are really the last unprotected population,"" said Harper, who quit the business in part because of the air he was breathing. He noted that when his group recently protested in front of Denver's City and County Building, there was a sign banning smoking within 20 feet of the building.

""But no one would even come outside to hear our case for our rights.""

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2897