ShareThisSmoking is bad for his health.
He already knows that, but Finley Armstrong says lighting up is a lifestyle choice.
And he's not quitting despite what he calls Utah's new "self-help program" -- the smoking ban in all bars and clubs starting Thursday.
"It's not going to make anyone smoke less," Armstrong said, between intermittent drags on his Parliament Light at Murphy's Bar & Grill on Salt Lake City's Main Street.
Next to Armstrong at the bar, Steve Fugitt said it's as simple as "if you don't want smoke, don't go in bars."
But this last phase of the 1995 Utah Indoor Clean Air Act will help improve people's health, especially bar employees calling in sick less, said David Neville, spokesman for the Utah Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.
Utah will ban smoking in bars long after so many other countries and states -- Ireland and England, New York and California -- already have.
The U.S. Surgeon General found in 2006 there is no safe level of secondhand smoke, Neville noted. "It's better just for people who are smoking, it's better for people who aren't smoking, it's better for people's health."
And Paul Sanchez remembers working at his old job in a smoking venue.
"The next morning I would wake up and cough black stuff," said Sanchez, a manager at Bliss Nightlife, a nonsmoking dance club.
The ban will bring private clubs and bars in line with other businesses already prohibited from allowing smoking.
And some can't wait for the New Year.
"For me, I'm less likely to smoke if I'm at a nonsmoking bar," said Lezlie Corn, who sat at a table in Murphy's with two nonsmoking friends.
And there are other benefits, the group said, like having to Febreze or dry-clean clothes less often after an outing.
Nonsmoker Rachel Getts said the new law makes sense in enclosed places like bars and clubs. She was at Junior's Tavern, a nonsmoking private club in Salt Lake City, but said she doesn't mind going to smoking bars with friends.
"My dad's a chain-smoker ... I'm probably already dying of lung cancer anyway," she said.
In a scene of what's to come more often (despite mandates that people smoke 25 feet away from a building), one smoker later huddled outside near the door to Junior's while he lit a Marlboro.
That's what the Murphy's duo isn't looking forward to: Smoking in the cold, leaving their drinks and possibly losing their place at the bar.
While the timing may not have been convenient for New Year's Eve revelers, said Utah Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program spokesman David Neville, people are expected to walk outside to smoke after midnight.
Under Utah law, tavern owners are expected to tell patrons to put out their cigarettes or smoke outside, Neville said. If a customer refuses, then local police or health officials should be called.
A bar owner who allows smoking inside could be fined up to $5,000, Neville said. He expects most enforcement will arise from anonymous tips
E-mail María Villasenor at mariav(at)sltrib.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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