With Smoke-Free Illinois Act, Smokers Get Burned By Meaghan MacKenzie and Dennis Newman
February 3, 2008
The Smoke Free Illinois Act has one Chicago bartender worried when his customers step outside for a smoke.
Roger Shanas, 58, has been bartending at Joe’s on Broadway since 1996 and has become close with the small but steady group of regulars at the dive.
“I really do enjoy the customers who come in here,” said Shanas.
Last week one of his regulars defied Section 70 of the Smoke Free Illinois Act and was fined for smoking a cigarette outside the bar’s entrance.
Section 70 states: “Smoking is prohibited within a minimum distance of 15 feet from entrances, exits, windows that open, and ventilation intakes that serve an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited under this Act so as to ensure that tobacco smoke does not enter the area through entrances, exits, open windows, or other means.”
“I think smokers get screwed,” Shanas said. “They charge you up the ass for cigarettes and then they tell you that you can’t smoke anywhere. It just doesn’t seem right.”
Shanas recalls smoky nights when he’d have to use his hands to clear the smoke away from his face before taking a customer’s drink order.
“Smoke doesn’t bother me,” said Shanas. “I don’t care, and neither do those who’ve been coming here for years before the law was passed.”
Shanas laughed as he theorized the possible ways smokers can now get ticketed, such as walking down the street and smoking.
A young man smokes a cigarette outside the Fullerton Ave. L Stop, unaware of the possible consequences.
But for Pete Skvara, 21, that hypothetical situation became a reality.
Last fall, when walking down Halsted Street smoking a cigarette, Skvara got caught in a thunderstorm. He stopped walking, took shelter under an awning in front of the UIC blue line station entrance, and seconds later a police officer pulled up and ticketed him $50 for smoking less than 15 feet away from a public entrance.
Inside the Blue Line Station where Pete Skvara received his ticket (photo courtesy www.world.nycsubway.com)
“That was the first time I had even heard of the law,” said Pete. “I’ve never been so mad about paying a ticket.”
The official Smoke-free Illinois website states each section of the law. It also provides a link to a complaint form and a number to the complaint line. Citizens can call the line to claim witness to someone breaking the law, or to complain about its stipulations.
Brian Mosley, 21, is an operator at the complaint line. He takes complaints and documents them according to how much personal information people are willing to disclose.
“We’ve had about 1,100 complaints of people breaking the law so far,” said Mosley.
According to Mosley, most of the calls that come into the complaint line are from businesses complaining that other businesses aren’t following the law.
“We also get a lot of people calling in and yelling about the law being bad and that we’re a bunch of idiots,” Mosley said. “The funny thing is I’m a smoker too. But, hey, it’s a pay check and I have to pay the bills.”
As evidenced by this map, the smoking ban was met with little opposition by Cook County House Members (photo courtesy
www.mchenrycountyblog.com).
Additional Media Element:
Video interviews with bartenders/ bar patrons on their opinion of "the 15 foot rule"/ the smoking ban in general
With Smoke-Free 
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