Restaurants and bars are doing a healthy business thanks to California's smoke-free workplace law, according to new figures released by state health officials Wednesday. The report douses initial criticism that the ban would cripple businesses and stifle tourism.

Amid a bustling lunch shift at Gordon Biersch restaurant in San Jose, manager Courtney La Voie said the restriction hasn't cut into revenue. ``It hasn't affected business,'' said La Voie. ``People are going to go out to eat despite the fact that they can't smoke.''

The state figures released in San Francisco show that sales taxes from restaurants and bars in the state rose to $35 million in 2000, up from $25 million in 1995, the year restaurants were ordered to become smoke-free zones. California ordered bar owners to outlaw smoking in 1998.

``We heard lots of doom and gloom that this would be a disaster for the economy,'' said state Health Director Diana Bonta, announcing the results Wednesday. ``But California smoke-free laws are good for businesses and good for public health.''

Bonta hopes the data showing revenue growth in the years immediately after the smoking ban will embolden New York, Chicago and other cities considering laws against smoking in public venues.

State lawmakers established the groundbreaking and controversial ban after national studies that showed exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke was associated with higher rates of lung, nasal, sinus and cervical cancers as well as heart disease. In California alone, secondhand smoke causes 4,500 to 7,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease each year, the American Heart Association said.

Pedro Castillo, a waiter for 15 years at the Hilton in San Francisco, said he is breathing easier since his restaurant extinguished smoking eight years ago. ``This is wonderful,'' said Castillo, 58.

A new Field Poll also released Wednesday by Gov. Gray Davis' office found that, like Castillo, most workers around the state are happy with the smoking ban. Seventy-five percent of bar owners and workers in California say they prefer to work in a smoke-free zone, while nearly 80 percent of bar patrons say smoke-free dining and drinking establishments are important to their health.

Some critics, like Tom Ryan, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, take issue with California's statistics, however. Ryan said California hotels and restaurants may be doing well because of factors unrelated to the tobacco ban.  He also said the ban strips business owners of their personal freedoms.  (As usual, he ignored the rights of workers and their freedom to breathe clean air.)

Brad Rocca, owner of Original Joe's in San Jose, understands both sides of the argument, but said he is fine with banning smoking in his restaurant: ``My restaurant is cleaner. I don't have nicotine stains on the wall, which is great, and it smells better.