It may come as a surprise to some folks that the information gathered from advocacy sites on the Internet may have a peculiar bias and not be a reliable source of wisdom or scientific knowledge. In the past year of service on the Mayor’s Task Force on Smoking, I have spent between 300-350 hours of research, some of it studying the advocacy sites so prominently available to us through common search engines.

The statistics and “studies” cited by many of these sources fall just shy of deceit and lies, and both sides of this crusade are equally at fault. To be well versed in this issue we need to read thoroughly and frequently read between the lines. Without studying advocacy Web sites with a critical eye, we may be blindly following someone’s well-intentioned but mistaken agenda.

A recent letter to the editor succumbed to this trap when reciting supposed economic information touting the benefits of smoking bans. “Positive results” (revenue, presumably) are reported from four cities with 100 percent smoking bans. Unfortunately, by not reading the information thoroughly, the writer fails to realize that none of them have 100 percent smoking bans; one has no ban at all, and another revoked the ban that had been enacted.

One of the cities mentioned, Boulder, Colo., has had a significant ban (modest list of exemptions) for many years and has seen restaurant sales climb during that time. However, it should be recognized that the restaurant sales in Boulder crept along at a rate 60 percent below the rate we experienced here in Lawrence. And one only needs to follow the articles in the Boston Globe to find dozens of accounts of sales declines of up to 30 percent at some restaurants and bars since that city’s ordinance came into play last May.

I realize the study of community economics is hardly the stuff to rally crusaders, and it never makes for easy sloganeering. But, wise readers would do well to question the assumptions and biases in many of these advocacy Web sites.

Dr. Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council on Science and Health spoke to this issue when she warned: “Public health policy is best advanced by policies that stick closely to the scientific facts — while recognizing that the best way to lose a legitimate argument is to overstate and exaggerate it.”

Chuck Magerl is a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Smoking and owner of Free State Brewing Co.