EAU CLAIRE (WEAU) - A new study shows many Wisconsin bartenders are feeling healthier since the state started its workplace smoking ban, but others say they're seeing fewer customers because of it.

UW-Milwaukee surveyed more than 500 bartenders, including some from Menomonie and Tomah, before and after the ban took effect.

Researchers say they found fewer upper respiratory symptoms among non-smoking bartenders during the second survey.

The owner of Empty Pockets in Fairchild says his customers still complain about the smoking ban nearly every day, even though it's been in effect for eight months. The study doesn't resonate with the crowd there.

“I don't believe that one bit,” Randy Wilkinson, who owns RW’s Place in Fairchild, said in reference to the results.

“I don't feel I'm any healthier or any sicker,” George Mann, who owns and tends bar at Empty Pockets said.

Customers there can smoke in a designated smoking room, or outside. Mann says that leaves him with a mess of cigarette butts to clean up, and less business.

“The non-smokers follow them out for conversation, and there's nothing going on in here, and if they plan on being here for two hours, maybe they have three beers instead of five,” Mann said.

The results were exactly what the Eau Claire City-County health department expected.

“This isn't happening just by chance,” director Richard Thoune said. “It's happening because second hand smoke is a really significant respiratory system irritant.”

Thoune says the county has the bar business that it had before the ban started and then some. He says the ban may not make everyone feel healthier, but states typically start seeing lower heart attack rates in the years after smoking bans start.

“We still have a lot of work to do in terms of preventing new smokers from taking up the habit,” Thoune said.

Mann says the ban has his customers smoking faster because it's cold.

“I think my health is probably getting worse because of it,” Wilkinson said.

Mann also says it's not good for small town bars like his.

“It's going to put a lot of businesses out of business,” he said.

The workplace smoking ban in Wisconsin started in July 2010.

The study says more bartenders support smoke-free establishments than when the study started, and that the support grew the most among bartenders who smoke and those in rural areas.

You can see the results of the study by clicking on the link below.