Smoke-free Air Laws Research Articles

Can public policy deter smoking escalation among young adults?

In the wake of significant budget shortfalls, 37 states and the District of Columbia have recently increased cigarette excise taxes to boost revenues. This study examines the impact of increasing the price of cigarettes, which will occur as a consequence of cigarette excise tax increases, and implementing restrictions on smoking in private worksites, restaurants, government worksites, healthcare facilities, and other public places on young adult smoking progression. This paper employs nationally representative longitudinal data on young adults from the Monitoring the Future Surveys matched with information on site-specific prices and smokefree air laws. The estimates clearly indicate that increasing the price of cigarettes would substantially decrease the number of young adults who progress into higher intensities of smoking. In addition, private worksite restrictions and restrictions on smoking in other public places are found to decrease moderate smoking uptake among young adults.

Preemptive State Smoke-Free Indoor Air Laws

Preemptive State Smoke-Free Indoor Air Laws

The New York City Smoke‐Free Air Act: Second‐hand smoke as a worker health and safety issue

Despite the provisions of a Smoke-Free Air Act (SFAA) enacted in 1995, more than 415,000 non-smoking New York City workers reported exposure to second-hand smoke in the workplace all or most of the time in 2002. Continued exposure to second-hand smoke in New York City prompted a renewed debate about a broader smoke-free air law. The approach taken by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to make the case for workplace protection from second-hand smoke, counter the opposition's arguments, and ultimately win the support of policymakers and the public for comprehensive smoke-free workplace legislation is described. On December 30, 2002, New York City's Mayor signed the SFAA of 2002 into law, making virtually all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, smoke-free. Proponents for a stronger law prevailed by defining greater protection from second-hand smoke as a matter of worker health and safety. Efforts to enact smoke-free workplace laws will inevitably encounter strong opposition, with the most common argument being that smoke-free measures will harm businesses. These challenges, however, can be effectively countered and public support for these measures is likely to increase over time by focusing the debate on worker protection from second-hand smoke exposure on the job.

Tobacco Institute lobbying at the state and local levels of government in the 1990s

Objective: To describe variation in Tobacco Institute (TI) lobbying expenditures across states and test whether these expenditures vary in relationship to measures of tobacco control activity at the state level....

Preemptive State Tobacco-Control Laws—United States, 1982-1998

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Environmental and policy interventions, particularly tobacco-control laws and regulations, are an important means to prevent and reduce tobacco use. For this study, preemptive legislation was defined as legislation that prevents any local jurisdiction from enacting restrictions that are more stringent than the state law or restrictions that may vary from the state law. One of the national health objectives for 2000 is to reduce to zero the number of states with preemptive smokefree indoor air laws (objective 3.25); a proposed objective for 2010 is to reduce the number of states with any preemptive tobacco-control laws to zero. To document trends in preemptive tobacco-control legislation at the state level, CDC identified state preemptive provisions and their effective dates from June 1982 (the oldest provision currently in effect) to September 1998. This report summarizes the results of this analysis, which indicate an increase in the number of preemptive provisions from 1982 to 1996; no preemptive provisions in tobacco-control laws have been enacted since 1996.