Public Health Commission eyes long-range smoking limitations

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun, Beacon Hill Times, Regional Review
Last week, the Boston Public Health Commission unanimously voted to shut down cigar bars in 10 years, banned cigarette sales at drugstores and on college campuses in the city and eliminated smoking at outdoor areas of restaurants and bars, rules that will go into effect in 60 days.
For cigar bars, it's not a huge hit. They have 10 years to find another livelihood, unless by then they're granted another 10-year extension. Boston has a handful of spots where patrons can enjoy a cigar or even a hookah, or tobacco pipe. Many opponents to the ban blame the hookah for drawing such attention, since it attracts youth primarily.
Since the vote on Thursday, it drew more attention, and perhaps more business, to the likes of Stanza del Sigari under Caffe Vittoria and Filippo Restaurant on Causeway, in the North End; Cigar Masters on Boylston Street, the one at the Bostonian Hotel; Tangierino in Charlestown, and Tufts Smoke Shop on Bennington Street in East Boston. Patrons can try a hookah at places like Tantric India Bistro on Stuart Street and Kashmir Indian Restaurant on Newbury Street.
Boston has six cigar bars and five hookah lounges, which are safe for years. However, no new such lounges will be permitted to open in the future.
City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina is a bit torn on the matter. He's a nonsmoker who was formerly a bartender, and he wishes the cigarette ban had occurred back then. "I love the strict no-smoking rules," he said.
But he also believes people have the right to choose where they work and whether to light up a cigar.
"The cigar bars we have right now should have been grandfathered in," he said. "When you're 21 years old, you make the decision to smoke. I'm a nonsmoker. I personally don't like smoking, but there are people who enjoy having a cigar. If smoke bothers you, you aren't going to work for the cigar bar."
As for the pharmacies losing the right to sell cigarettes, LaMattina said the real key is enforcement, not banning certain institutions from selling products. "The city loves to have strict tobacco laws, but the mission should be to make sure it's impossible for teenagers to have access. So you have special shops where they're carding people. On the smoking laws, Boston is taking the lead in Massachusetts," he said.
Many cigar and hookah bars closed shop when the cigarette ban occurred years ago. State disease trackers recently found that the four-year-old statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and bars seems to have helped to dramatically reduce deaths from heart attacks.
Pharmacy chains and tobacco companies had argued that smokers will just go outside the city to buy their tobacco, and will take some of their non-cigarette purchases with them. This law will affect about 75 pharmacies and a few campus convenience stores. Starting immediately, smoking won't be permitted on the patios of restaurants and bars that have outdoor service.
"Boston has taken another step that puts it in the forefront in the United States in protecting people against secondhand smoke," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an antismoking group based in Washington, D.C. "Boston rules are now as tough or tougher than [those in] any other city in the country."