Well, so say UGA scientists anyway.

UGA researchers did the study outside Athens restaurants and bars which have had an indoor smoking ban since 2005.

The scientists had non-smokers sit outside for a six hour period.

They found levels of the nicotine by-product cotinine increased 162 percent in those volunteers.

Lookit, this is a matter of picking your poison.  People are going to smoke, whether inside or out.  The difference is, with the indoor smoking ban, you walk through a cloud of toxicity on your way in.  Without the indoor smoking ban, you're marinating in it the whole time you're at the bar. 

Would the (trying to quit) smoker in me prefer that the indoor smoking ban go away or be somehow mitigated?  Absolutely.  And I agree with something that Andy Rusk said back in 2006, "No one goes to a bar after 11:00 pm for their health."

But, the other side of me says that walking through a cloud is better for your health and mine than marinating in it for a couple of hours.  So, this study doesn't tell us anything that common sense hasn't already told us, but it's a good reminder that mitigating a problem doesn't mean you've eliminated it.