By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

Associated Press Writer

LANSING, Mich. — Smoking bans in other states don’t have any net economic effect on bars and restaurants, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study was released by former Michigan Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, now of Public Sector Consultants, a Lansing think tank.

It was prepared for The Campaign for Smokefree Air. The group is trying to get the state Senate to take up a House-passed bill banning smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

A spokesman for the Michigan Restaurant Association said Tuesday that bars and restaurants should be allowed to set their own policies based on what customers want. More than 5,000 of the roughly 16,000 bars and restaurants in Michigan already ban smoking, up from around 2,200 in 1998, Andy Deloney said.

Spokesman Lance Binoniemi of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association also disagrees with having a statewide smoking ban for bars and restaurants.

“Any time they come out with an overall economic impact, they really fail to see the impact on the small family business,” he said. “During these economic times in Michigan, I don’t know why we’d try to negatively affect anyone.”

But Sikkema said studies have shown secondhand smoke affects the health of customers and workers in places that allow smoking, affecting not just lungs and respiratory systems but hearts and cardiovascular systems. Scientific evidence indicates that having a separate nonsmoking section or cleaning the air doesn’t eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke, he said.

He noted that smoking bans recently took effect in two states — Iowa and Nebraska — and that 24 states already ban smoking in restaurants and bars, while four states ban smoking in restaurants.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, looks unlikely to change his mind and allow the smoking ban to come up for a vote. Bishop has said he thinks the decision on whether to go smokefree is best left up to individual bars and restaurants and that the bill would put unnecessary government restrictions on and possibly hurt private establishments.

But Sikkema, a Republican from the city of Wyoming, said he would have passed a similar bill while he was Senate leader if he’d known then what the new study shows.

“This is not a Republican or Dem- ocratic issue,” Sikkema said, noting that eight Republicans joined Democrats to pass the measure last year in the House. “The evidence is overwhelming … (that) this bill will have no net economic effect on the Michigan restaurant and bar industry.”

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said she would sign a smoking ban.