Impact of smoke-free policies on businesses, the hospitality sector, and other incidental outcomes

to go smoke-free should be left to the businesses themselves and that if these policies are good for their establishment, owners will voluntarily adopt them. The tobacco industry has supported these arguments with claims that smoke-free policies result in lost revenue for restaurants, bars, and other hospitality establishments; fewer jobs in the hospitality sector; and business closings (KPMG, 1998; Deloitte & Touche LLP, 2003; U.S.Departement of Health and Human Services, 2006). This strategy, of making claims about the harmful economic effects of tobacco control policies, is not unique to the industry’s attack on smoke-free policies. It has also been used in opposition to other policies, including higher tobacco taxes and comprehensive bans on tobacco product advertising and promotion (Jha & Chaloupka, 1999; Chaloupka & Warner, 2000). This chapter reviews the evidence on the costs to businesses of allowing smoking in the workplace, and of the potential costs and benefits to businesses that restrict or ban workplace smoking. The extensive and growing literature on the economic impact of smoke-free policies on the hospitality sector is reviewed in more detail, after a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the methods used in these studies. This is followed by a brief review of the limited evidence on other incidental and/or unanticipated effects of smoke-free policies not covered in other chapters of this Handbook.