Madison smoking ban producing better health

I've been critical of the smoking ban because while I do support the goal, I'm still not so sure the city is implementing this the right way.

However, there is a report mentioned in the Tuesday Business Section of the Wisconsin State Journal that shows bartenders are already showing signs of improved health. In it UW-Madison researchers reported a decrease in eight upper respiratory symptoms. The participants also showed improvement in breathing capacity and overall lung function.

This is great news and will make the pain of lost business for local bars easier to swallow. Hopefully it will inspire the communities around Madison to take up a ban too. I hope proponents of the ban aggressively use these results to get working on a statewide ban so the ban is not encouraging drinking and driving by having smokers in Madison go to bars in surrounding communities.

For the record, I loathe smoking but I still don't like seeing some of my favorite local bars being the ones that get the fines when a patron won't put out a cigarette after they have been asked to do so.