The analysis is the first to systematically examine tourist volume in a number of localities before and after smoke-free ordinances were enacted. Research focused on tourism in California, Utah, and Vermont as well as in the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Boulder, Colo., and Flagstaff and Mesa, Ariz.

"As the evidence that secondhand tobacco smoke endangers nonsmokers has accumulated, more and more communities have eliminated smoking in public places and workplaces," wrote the authors. "As of September 1998, 212 communities and three states had enacted laws mandating smoke-free restaurants, and one state and 31 communities had enacted local ordinances requiring smoke-free bars. These ordinances not only protect nonsmokers from toxins in the secondhand smoke, they also create an environment that encourages smokers to quit."

The researchers found that after smoking was banned in restaurants, hotel revenues increased in five locations, although the upward trend slowed in one place, and did not change in four locations.

"This new research is important because communities can now pass smoke-free restaurant ordinances and not fear a decrease in tourism," said study co-author Annemarie Charlesworth, MA, a research associate at the University of California at San Francisco. "And, in fact, it could be good for business. There will not be negative economic repercussions from protecting health. This has been a myth propagated by the tobacco industry."

"This is an important new study supporting the move to protect the public from the dangers of secondhand smoke, and particularly protecting food service employees from the environmental tobacco smoke at their work," said Frank Baker, PhD, vice president of behavioral research and director of the Behavioral Research Center at the American Cancer Society (ACS). "We know tobacco is a major problem, causing 30 percent of cancer deaths. Clearly, since smoking is such a major cause of death, we are concerned about making the environment smoke-free."

"While the tobacco industry will seek to minimize this study, it will help by providing empirical support for the position that the economic cost to restaurants and hotels from lost tourism revenues are not sufficient to argue against passing smoke-free ordinances," Dr. Baker added.

About 419,000 people die in the US each year from smoking-related causes, and 3,000 adults die each year from illnesses caused by secondhand smoke.