LOS ANGELES : Restaurateurs Report 24% Loss From Smoking Ban
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More than half of 300 restaurateurs surveyed said a citywide ban on smoking in eateries cost them 24% of their revenues, according to a report released Monday.
“The results are quite clear,” said Paul Holm of Charlton Research Co., the San Francisco-based firm that did the study.
Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, the council’s anti-smoking crusader, dismissed the survey as another tobacco industry ploy.
Holm told reporters the study received no funding from cigarette makers, but Braude said the Charlton Research Co. has worked for tobacco companies in the past. The survey’s sponsors--the Pacific Dining Car and the Southern California Business Assn.--announced the results a day before the council is scheduled to debate whether to order a study on the ban’s impact.
“The city has got to look at this particular survey . . . to see if, in fact, we have to rethink the current ban,” Councilman Richard Alatorre said.
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