RAYMOND Speedy Perdue, left, dislikes the smoking ban. He misses smoking with his friends inside the Cross Town Tavern, 1910 Haskell Ave.

Eight months after the Lawrence City Commission enacted the city’s smoking ban, the air inside area bars and restaurants is clear, but a haze still hangs around the issue of how the ban has affected business.

Soon after the ban was enacted, some local bar owners complained that their sales had plummeted. Some owners, such as the Hereford House’s Rod Anderson, said they might have to close as a result of the ban. While time appears to have eased those cries, some concerns remain.

“Our after-work crowd is still down – a lot of them just didn’t come back,” said Jerry Neverve, owner of the Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Mass. “Most of your older career guys who would come in after work and have a few beers … a lot of them just go home.”

Meanwhile, ban advocates are singing the praises of Lawrence’s smoking policy. Kathy Bruner, coordinator for Clean Air Lawrence, said the ban hadn’t significantly affected bar business, and the health benefits merit the change regardless.

“If you look at the numbers, they really are about the same,” Bruner said. “I hear from students who work in bars who tell me that they can go work out now (because it’s easier to breathe), and they couldn’t before because of the smoke.”

But owners like Neverve claim the fact that sales figures are at levels close to previous years is a signal that the ban has discouraged customers from coming in.

“Before the smoking ban there was always a 6 to 8 percent increase yearly on business,” he said. “I think the tax figures right now are pretty flat. We interpret that basically as a 6 percent drop.”

Furthermore, he said, the mild weather this winter may have lessened the impact of the ban because it allowed smokers to take their habit outdoors without exposing themselves to brutal cold.

“The weather in February was fabulous,” Neverve said. “It wasn’t minus 10 outside when they went to have a smoke.”

Regardless, bar owners throughout the area are starting to adapt to the changes. The Hereford House opened an outdoor patio in March to accommodate smokers.

“We’re in the hospitality business and we’re entrepreneurs, and we have to adapt to the situations around us,” Neverve said. “We try to influence those situations, obviously, but it is the law of the city, and we’ll do what the law says. We’re the most highly regulated industry in the country, so we’re used to rules.”