excerpt:
Smoke-free laws do not discourage business activity. Independent, scientific economic research consistently proves that smoke-free policies have no net negative impact on the hospitality industry.
Even as Clearing the Air has repeatedly informed ClearWay MN and other smoking ban lobbyists about the obvious massive number of 500+ local hospitality closings since smoking bans were enacted, right here in the Twin Cities area.
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html
As well as thousands more hospitality closings since smoking bans were enacted elsewhere:
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html
And in fact contrary to ClearWay MN's (formerly MPAAT) lie, their own previous study found that smoking bans eliminated business in significant numbers:
click to enlarge table above
"customers before" was count before smoking ban
"customers after" was count after smoking ban
"customers before" was count before smoking ban
"customers after" was count after smoking ban
(data above found online here)
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/11/state-funded-anti-tobacco-group-proves.html