The past 25 years have been difficult for Wisconsin taverns, but so far there is no hard evidence to show that the smoking ban in Madison is making matters worse, a UW Medical School researcher says.
“A valid study is never done through self reports,” researcher David Ahrens said Friday, referring to early claims by dozens of bar owners that business has been down by 20 percent or more since July 1, when smoking was forced outside.
He said that this kind of data is “highly unreliable,” and in the coming months he’d look at a sample of sales tax receipts submitted to the state Department of Revenue to gauge what’s happening to the city’s taverns and restaurant bars.