Abstract
BackgroundIn January 1998, the California state legislature extended a workplace smoking ban to bars. The purpose of this study was to explore the conditions that facilitate or hinder compliance with a smoking ban in bars.MethodsWe studied the implementation of the smoking ban in bars by interviewing three sets of policy participants: bar employers responsible for complying with the law; local government officials responsible for enforcing the law; and tobacco control activists who facilitated implementation. We transcribed the interviews and did a qualitative analysis of the text.ResultsThe conditions that facilitated bar owners' compliance with a smoking ban in bars included: if the cost to comply was minimal; if the bars with which they were in competition were in compliance with the smoking ban; and if there was authoritative, consistent, coordinated, and uniform enforcement. Conversely, the conditions that hindered compliance included: if the law had minimal sanctions; if competing bars in the area allowed smoking; and if enforcement was delayed or inadequate.ConclusionMany local enforcers wished to forfeit their local discretion and believed the workplace smoking ban in bars would be best implemented by a state agency. The potential implication of this study is that, given the complex nature of local politics, smoking bans in bars are best implemented at a broader provincial or national level.
Highlights
In January 1998, the California state legislature extended a workplace smoking ban to bars
We anticipated that our response rate could be affected by bar owners' reluctance to put themselves in a situation where they would admit breaking the law, and local enforcers reluctance to put themselves in a situation where they would admit failing to enforce a law, we secured a Certificate of Confidentiality issued by the National Institutes of Health to protect participants in this research study from any breach of confidentiality
We begin by presenting the issues central to the bar owners because in January 1998, when few enforcement mechanisms were being put into place, the onus was on the bar owners to comply voluntarily
Summary
In January 1998, the California state legislature extended a workplace smoking ban to bars. The purpose of this study was to explore the conditions that facilitate or hinder compliance with a smoking ban in bars. We present findings from our case study of the implementation of the smoking ban in bars in the state of Cali-. We studied the policy process as it evolved, with the goal of elucidating the conditions that facilitate compliance with the smoking ban in bars, and the potential barriers that hinder compliance. If there is smoking in a workplace, employees or members of the public may confidentially report violations to local law enforcement agencies. There is the possibility of violators to be subject to unfair business practice lawsuits from their competitors who comply with the law
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