Keeping people from smoking in bars may be as simple as removing ashtrays.

Stanislaus County tobacco education officers surveyed 50 bars throughout the county in November and December to see how many followed a statewide ban on smoking in bars, effective January 1998. The results:

• Ashtrays were sitting out in 38 of the 50 (76 percent).
• People were smoking in 37 of the 38 with ashtrays (97 percent).
• Only one person was smoking in a bar without an ashtray (8 percent).

Heather Gruenig Duvall, director of the tobacco education project, released the results Tuesday at a Modesto City Council meeting. That panel formally designated the county's Department of Environmental Resources as the agency that will enforce the ban in Modesto.

Oakdale City Council members did the same at their Tuesday meeting. Newman previously took identical action. Turlock, Riverbank, Patterson and Waterford are expected to follow suit, while Ceres and Hughson opted to have their police officers handle it.

The ban on smoking in bars, taverns and gaming clubs went into effect in January 1998, joining most other public places, but wasn't enforced until a couple of weeks ago.

Since then, Duvall's office has visited some violators and given warnings. Next week, she expects to refer stubborn bar owners to the county Department of Environmental Resources, whose officers eventually would issue citations.

Business owners and patrons could both be cited and would face fines of $100 for first offenses and $200 and $500 for second and third violations.

Other results of the survey:

• All 11 bars checked in Ceres (four), Oakdale (four), Riverbank (two) and Salida (one) were in violation.
• Sixteen of 22 bars checked in Modesto (73 percent) were in violation.
• Forty-four percent of all bars checked didn't have "no smoking" signs required by law.
• Two bars posted signs reading: "Smokers are our business," and another had one with the message: "No butts about it: Call your congressman."
• Newman was the only community among 11 checked in Stanislaus County where surveyors couldn't find a violator.

"The results reveal a very pessimistic outlook regarding bars in Stanislaus County," Duvall wrote in her report.

Modesto resident Martin Fletcher argued against the ban at Tuesday's council meeting. Councilman Bill Conrad said he strongly disagrees with the statewide ban, "but it's the law, and it's our responsibility to enforce it," he said.

Noting an exemption on the ban for tobacco shops, Conrad questioned whether bars wouldn't start selling tobacco products. Duvall said the exemption is only good for stores whose primary business is tobacco.

Staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at 578-2390.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.