A new study shows employees and patrons at Eau Claire taverns can breathe easier because of the city-wide smoking ban.

The study comes from the Eau Claire City-County Health Department. They found the level of fine particle pollution in four Eau Claire taverns went down 95 percent or more compared to the levels present before Eau Claire implemented the ban.

The study included four taverns in Eau Claire and two outside the city limits. They were monitored in February and March of last year and then again in February of this year.

Before the city's smoking ban in 2008, air quality in all six bars reached levels considered hazardous to health. That’s the highest level of air quality danger ranked by the EPA. Monitoring from February of this year found the taverns in Eau Claire ranked "good." That ranking by the EPA shows no health concerns.

The bars outside Eau Claire showed no change, still ranking in the hazardous levels.