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According to a study in this month's issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, bars and casinos filled with tobacco smoke have up to 50 times more cancer-causing particles in the air than streets and highways congested with diesel trucks during rush hour.

The study also shows indoor air pollution virtually disappears once smoking is banned.

James Repace, a biophysicist who works as a secondhand smoke consultant, tested air in a casino, a pool hall and six taverns in Delaware in November 2002 and January 2003, two months after the state imposed a strict indoor smoking ban. He searched for fine particulate matter and carcinogens when he tested both outdoors and indoors.

Repace was invited by the Delaware Tobacco Coalition to conduct the study, because they had voted to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars, bowling alleys, pool halls, restaurants and casinos.

About 90 percent of the pollution in bars is from tobacco smoke, Repace said.

"A lot of people have a notion that bars are smoky places but automobiles are worse," Repace said. "Well, that is not the case."

One nonsmoker agrees with the study's findings.

"These places get too crowded or too smoky," said Mike Washil, 36, of Friendship, who was having a beer and snack at Smokin' Joe's, a bar on the South Side.

"Any bar on (East Carson) on the weekend, you can't go in without wanting to burn your smelly clothes after you leave."

Gary Reinert Jr., president of Hot Metal Grille, a South Side restaurant with a full-service bar, said fear of bad air was the reason he made the entire establishment smoke-free.

"I had concerns for the health of the staff and the health of other people in the restaurant," he said. "My feeling is even if you have areas that are sectioned off as smoking and nonsmoking, you can't get rid of the smoke completely."

Smoker Tom Garger, 29, of Clairton, said the air in bars can be hazardous, but considers it different from the pollution outside.

"Both can be bad for you," he said. "It at least makes me feel better to see (the ventilator) in the bar," he said.

Repace said even bars with ventilation systems can still have a high level of pollution -- about 10 times more than outdoors -- when smokers are inside.

Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association, said restaurants aim to please customers and that can make it tough to institute bans.

"It is a two-sided coin; there are certain customers who do not like smoking and those who do smoke," he said. "Stronger ventilation is one of the methods restaurateurs are seeking to alleviate the burden of smoking concerns."

Health officials are concerned that casino and bar workers may be exposing themselves to particulate pollution at far greater levels than the government allows outside.

"Breathing in the secondhand smoke can be the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day," said Guillermo Cole, spokesman for the Allegheny County Health Department.

A clause in Pennsylvania's Clean Indoor Air Act of 1988 says the state has the power to overturn a smoking ban stronger than its own in any municipality other than Philadelphia. This has had anti-smoking activists fuming.

Greg Hartley, assistant director for Smoke Free Pennsylvania, hopes municipalities and business owners view smoking bans as part of a person's right to work in a safe environment.

"This study demonstrates, for people who work in bars and restaurants, that you should not have to choose between your health and your job," he said.

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