YOUR article headlined ``Smoke drifts back to bars'' (Page 1A, Dec.
28) says that Santa Clara County is doing poorly and getting worse in
complying with the smoke-free bars law. This is a slap in the face of
all the bar owners and bartenders, smokers and non-smokers, who have
made great strides to go smoke-free. More importantly, it feeds the
bar owners' fear that most other owners are eschewing the law and
stealing clients who smoke.

There are 47 bars that are so smoke-free that their patrons have
called the Lung Association help-line with unsolicited kudos for the
owners. Yet your article gives the impression that the law is not
working and says compliance in Santa Clara County is dropping due to
lack of enforcement.

Based on the complaints logged at our help-line:

Problems with enforcement are mainly in San Jose.

Seven bars accounted for one-third of the 223 complaints received from
Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 1998. Four of those bars were in San Jose. Very
few bars have repeatedly ignored the law.

Significantly, all of the largest bars in San Jose are
smoke-free.

Of the Santa Clara County bars (those in unincorporated areas), only
one is out of compliance.

Most of the enforcement problems are with bars in San Jose. Bars and
enforcement in most the county's 14 cities and towns have resulted in
a great job of compliance with the law.

This is a complaint-driven process. Bar patrons who visit a bar and
find that smoking is allowed indoors call our help line
(408-999-0500), the county or the police. We don't expect the police
to do bar stops, interfering with ``more important'' work. However,
when complaints are made, it is the city's responsibility to follow
through.

The fact that some bar owners are not happy with it is not unusual.
The fact of the matter is that employers are responsible for providing
a safe workplace. Secondhand smoke is a class of human carcinogen
known to contribute to health problems, including lung disease. It is
also no surprise that smoking employees find it inconvenient. If
employees of a toxic dump decide they want to bathe in chemicals,
that's their prerogative. It would still be the owner's responsibility
to provide an environment where a toxic bath would not be necessary to
get the job done.

Yes, there are a few bars that are continuing to buck the law.
Hopefully the city of San Jose is now on a better track to deal with
those bars.

Before predicting the demise of the smoke-free bars law -- which is
working well in most of Santa Clara County -- let's see if contact
from the city can bring the few problem bars into compliance.

In the mean time, most bars in Santa Clara County continue to do a
great job of providing a safe, smoke-free environment for their
employees. They deserve a pat on the back.

Roslyn Bienenstock President, Board of Directors American Lung
Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties