Smoke-free restaurants in Pike County

WESTFALL - Perkin’s Family Restaurant and Bakery at 103 Westfall Town Drive in Matamoras has a new policy. It’s smoke-free on weekends. Perkins Manager Fred Aichelmann has experience with smoke-free policies from managing two Perkins Restaurants in New York where the Clean Indoor Air Act has been in effect since July 24, 2003. Aichelmann has found that smoke-free air benefits his business in some unexpected ways. “Something that you might not realize is that you can’t have pastries exposed to smoke because it spoils them. Also, when we’re busy, the non-smoking section fills up fast. If the whole restaurant is non-smoking, then people don’t wait as long to be seated. And that’s been good for business. And we haven’t gotten any complaints about not having a smoking section so I don’t think that it’s really been that inconvenient for the smokers, either.” On June 27, 2006 Surgeon General Richard Carmona declared the debate about the dangers of secondhand smoke over. “The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard; there is no safe level of secondhand smoke exposure,” said Carmona. The Surgeon General called for smoke-free buildings and public places to lessen what he termed “involuntary smoking.” Currently, 17 states and more than 400 towns, cities and counties have passed strong non-smoking laws. Passing anti-smoking laws is up to Congress and state and local governments. On June 15, Philadelphia became a smoke-free city when City Council voted to pass Clean Air bill to protect workers and patrons from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Pennsylvania is considering its position on Clean Indoor Air and you can voice your opinion to Governor Ed Rendell at http://www.smokefree.net/pa/. While the Pennsylvania House and Senate have not yet passed a clean indoor air bill to mandate protection from the harm of secondhand smoke in public places state wide, there are many restaurants, like Perkin’s, that have chosen to be smoke-free. The Pike County Tobacco-Free Coalition has created a smoke-free dining guide which lists 42 restaurants around Pike County that enjoy a smoke-free policy. This dining guide is free and available at the Penn. State Cooperative Extension, 514 Broad Street, Milford. The Pike County Tobacco-Free Coalition has offered its thanks to these businesses for making this smoke-free policy change and by doing so, protecting the health of their employees and patrons.