Smoking Bans In Restaurants Research Articles

Restaurant and Bar Owners’ Exposure to Secondhand Smoke and Attitudes Regarding Smoking Bans in Five Chinese Cities

Despite the great progress made towards smoke-free environments, only 9% of countries worldwide mandate smoke-free restaurants and bars. Smoking was generally not regulated in restaurants and bars in China before 2008. This study was designed to examine the public attitudes towards banning smoking in these places in China. A convenience sample of 814 restaurants and bars was selected in five Chinese cities and all owners of these venues were interviewed in person by questionnaire in 2007. Eighty six percent of current nonsmoking subjects had at least one-day exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at work in the past week. Only 51% of subjects knew SHS could cause heart disease. Only 17% and 11% of subjects supported prohibiting smoking completely in restaurants and in bars, respectively, while their support for restricting smoking to designated areas was much higher. Fifty three percent of subjects were willing to prohibit or restrict smoking in their own venues. Of those unwilling to do so, 82% thought smoking bans would reduce revenue, and 63% thought indoor air quality depended on ventilation rather than smoking bans. These results showed that there was support for smoking bans among restaurant or bar owners in China despite some knowledge gaps. To facilitate smoking bans in restaurants and bars, it is important to promote health education on specific hazards of SHS, provide country-specific evidence on smoking bans and hospitality revenues, and disseminate information that restricting smoking and ventilation alone cannot eliminate SHS hazards.

Reflections on 25 Years of Health Promotion—Where Have We Been and Where are We Going?

Reflections on 25 Years of Health Promotion—Where Have We Been and Where are We Going?

Røykeforbud på serveringssteder og luftveissymptomer blant ansatte

Along with the introduction of a smoking ban in restaurants in 2004, respiratory symptoms, urinary cotinine and lung function among employees in 13 different bars and restaurants were studied before and after the ban came into force. At the same time measurements of air quality were taken at the respective restaurants and bars. The purpose of this study was to compare self-respiratory symptoms before and after the smoking ban among the staff at the establishments. The study included 93 men and women. These were followed during a work-shift before the smoking ban and three to eight months later. Initially 86 of the participants answered a questionnaire about respiratory tract symptoms , while 67 did so at follow-up. Before the ban 39 of the subjects (45.3%) reported wheezing in the chest and 28 (32.6%) said they had recently had an upper respiratory tract infection. 43.3% of the participants reported fewer symptoms and 20.9% more symptoms after the ban, while 35.8% reported no change. The corresponding figures among smokers were 47.5%, 15.0% and 37.5%. This study shows that the introduction of a smoking ban in restaurants contributes to a reduction in reported respiratory symptoms among employees, and may therefore be advantageous for the health of this group.

Bar and restaurant workers' attitudes towards Norway's comprehensive smoking ban: a growth curve analysis

BackgroundNorway passed legislation banning smoking in restaurants, bars and other public spaces in 2004. This study tracks changes in hospitality workers' attitudes towards Norway's ban over three time points, using...

The Long Road to Success: Advocating for Public Policy Change

NC Med J January/February 2010, Volume 71, Number 1 The process of crafting legislation has been crudely called “sausage making,” but it can also be a refined process—an art that involves the blending of many perspectives including those of the ideal-driven advocate, the legal expert, and the political negotiator. Influences on public policy come from the grassroots, advocates, and representatives of business and government. Successful public health policy change occurs when leadership from all of these sectors come together to educate, influence, and motivate the passions in others to demand change. This indeed was the case when North Carolina became the first tobacco producing state in the nation to pass legislation— House Bill 2—to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. The North Carolina Alliance for Health (NCAH) is a statewide advocacy coalition addressing obesity and tobacco use prevention policy issues. Since its creation in 2002, NCAH has had success in both raising North Carolina’s tobacco tax and advancing secondhand smoke reduction legislative campaigns at the state level. Through the hard work of many coalition members, NCAH is now seen as the go-to coalition by policymakers, advocates, and media for tobacco policy. NCAH has achieved several of the coalition’s tobacco policy goals through strategic planning, partnership development, consensus building, media relations, grassroots networks, and vigilant education about evidence-based policy. Success is Often Built on Previous Successes

WHY UNDERSTANDING SMOKING BANS IS IMPORTANT FOR ESTIMATING THEIR EFFECTS: CALIFORNIA’S RESTAURANT SMOKING BANS AND RESTAURANT SALES

A large literature has sought to determine whether smoking bans help or hinder restaurants. Much of the literature improperly specifies its econometric equations and thus mistakenly infers causality. Examining the relationship between restaurant smoking bans and restaurant revenues in 267 California communities, we reach two main conclusions. First, California’s municipal restaurant smoking bans are endogenous in a critical way—restaurant sales growth (or something correlated with restaurant sales growth) appears to cause restaurant bans, not vice versa. Consequently, failure to control properly for trends can produce spurious “evidence” of causation. Second, ban heterogeneity (e.g., state versus local) can be exploited to sort out—or rule out—causal effects. In other words, pooling data and treating smoking bans implemented at different levels as homogenous (as many studies do) ignores an important source of information and is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions. Our analysis holds lessons for the many studies that have examined the arguably more important question of how smoking bans affect smoking rates. (JEL L51)

News on tobacco and public attitudes toward smokefree air policies in the United States

Smoking bans are a central component of comprehensive tobacco control programs, and an increasing number of states and localities have adopted them. Public support is critical as efforts continue to extend protection from secondhand smoke to all. We examine the relationship between state print news coverage of tobacco and public sentiment towards smoking bans. We utilize two data sources: the February 2002 Current Population Survey Tobacco Use Supplement, and articles from 2 months in a database comprised of content-analyzed newspaper articles on tobacco from all daily U.S. newspapers. We control for demographic and state-level tobacco covariates, and use logistic regression to identify associations between news coverage and attitudes towards policy initiatives by smoking status. We find no association between tone of news coverage and any outcome measure and little evidence of a relationship between the volume of overall tobacco news and attitudes towards smoking bans. Our data suggest that people exposed to more news on secondhand smoke issues are less likely to support restaurant smoking bans. Higher volume of secondhand smoke news is also predictive of lower support for bar bans among recent quitters. Support for hospital bans is, however, largely independent of news coverage. We suggest two alternate explanations for our findings. First, for certain people, greater news volume on secondhand smoke may lead to lower support for bans. Alternatively, secondhand smoke may be more newsworthy in states where bans are more controversial.

College Students' Perceptions of a Smoking Ban in Restaurants and Bars

This study investigates college students' perceptions of smoking bans and their knowledge of smoking bans implemented in a college town. A total of 180 college students enrolled in two hospitality management classes participated in the study. While the majority of students were strongly supportive of smoking bans in general, results of the study indicated that significant differences were found in smoking ban perceptions based on respondents' future employment segments. The length of residency also affects how much information respondents knew about implemented smoking ban regulations.

Do local tobacco regulations influence perceived smoking norms? Evidence from adult and youth surveys in Massachusetts

Smoking behavior has been shown to be influenced by individuals' perceptions of social norms about smoking. This study examines whether local regulations regarding clean indoor air and youth access to tobacco are associated with residents' subsequent perceptions of smoking norms. Data came from Massachusetts surveys of adults and youths and from records of local tobacco control policies. Indices of perceived smoking norms were based on perceived smoking prevalence and perceived community acceptance of smoking. Multilevel models tested the association between perceived norms and the presence of strong local regulations in four policy domains (restaurant smoking bans, smoking restrictions in other venues, enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to youths and youth-oriented marketing restrictions). The model controlled for town voting results on a tobacco tax referendum, which served as a measure of antismoking sentiment pre-dating the regulations. Results showed that youths perceived community norms to be significantly more 'antismoking' if they lived in a town that had strong regulations in at least three of the four domains. For adults, having strong regulations in as few as one to two domains was associated with perceiving community norms to be significantly more antismoking. Implementing and publicizing local regulations may help shape perceptions of community smoking norms.

Why Understanding Smoking Bans is Important for Estimating their Effects: California's Restaurant Smoking Bans and Restaurant Sales

A large literature has sought to determine whether smoking bans help or hinder restaurants. Much of the literature improperly specifies its econometric equations, and thus mistakenly infers causality. Examining the relationship between restaurant smoking bans and restaurant revenues in 267 California communities, we reach two main conclusions. First, California's municipal restaurant smoking bans are endogenous in critical way - restaurant sales growth (or something correlated with restaurant sales growth) appears to cause restaurant bans, not vice versa. Consequently, failure to control properly for trends can produce spurious evidence of causation. Second, ban heterogeneity (e.g., state vs. local) can be exploited to sort out - or rule out - causal effects. In other words, pooling data and treating smoking bans implemented at different levels as homogenous (as many studies do) ignores an important source of information, and is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions. Our analysis holds lessons for the many studies that have examined the arguably more important question of how smoking bans affect smoking rates.

Rauchfreie Gaststätten

Every year over 3,300 non-smokers in Germany die from diseases caused by passive smoking. It was the aim of this study to obtain country-wide representative opinions about a smoking ban in restaurants. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of the population, 2,008 men and women aged 16 years or over. Opinions on smoking ban in restaurants were analysed by bivariate and multivariate methods with regard to potential influencing factors such as smoking status and socio-demographic status. The majority of those questioned, namely 50% (95% confidence interval 57-61), wished for a smoking ban in restaurants. This represents an increase of 6% compared with the preceding year. While over 82% of never-smokers and 71% of previous smokers were in favor of a smoking ban, agreement for a ban among smokers averaged 25%, depending on the amount smoked. Agreement was especially common among women, the elderly and married persons. Three of four Germans said that they would continue to go to restaurants as frequently after smoking had been banned there. This is the first scientific study of opinions among the population on the smoking ban in restaurants of Germany. The current average approval rate for a ban was comparable to that among other nations. An overwhelming majority of the population would welcome a smoking ban and would, after its introduction, visit restaurants as often as previously.

Putting out Fires: An Examination of the Determinants of State Clean Indoor-Air Laws

1. IntroductionFew products have generated as much public scrutiny as tobacco. In light of the health consequences associated with smoking, the federal government took several steps in the 1960s (such as published health warnings and restrictions on cigarette advertising) to reduce the incidence of smoking. Beginning in the 1970s, state governments began to play an increasing role in the anti-smoking campaign by adopting clean indoor-air laws, which restricted smoking in particular locations, such as restaurants, bars, and work sites.1Various studies, including Wasserman et al. (1991), Chaloupka (1992), Chaloupka and Saffer (1992), and Yurekli and Zhang (2000), generally confirmed that clean indoor-air laws are effective at reducing cigarette demand. However, the nature of the smoking restriction appears to matter. In particular, Chaloupka (1992) and Chaloupka and Saffer (1992) found that restrictions on smoking in public places reduced cigarette demand, whereas restrictions at private work sites do not significantly reduce demand.2Due to variations in antismoking laws across states, only a few studies have addressed the demand for clean indoor-air laws. In a survey of individuals from San Luis Obispo, California, for example, Boyes and Marlow (1996) found nonsmokers and women to be more supportive of a smoking ban in restaurants and bars. Alternatively, Chaloupka and Saffer (1992) used state-level data and found that differences in smoking restrictions in public places and at private work sites depend on several factors, including cigarette prices, income, tobacco production, religious affiliation, and political activity. More recently, Hersch, Del Rossi, and Viscusi (2004) found that voting preferences of state residents and the political affiliation of lawmakers were the main factors that affect whether or not a restriction is adopted at a specific location (for example, restaurants, bars, malls, enclosed arenas, and hospitals). However, smoking habits could have an effect on voting preferences; therefore, these results could show the indirect effect of tobacco consumption on smoking restrictions.There are several limitations of the existing literature that lead to a need for further analysis. First, studies have ignored the potential role of cigarette taxation as a determinant of smoking bans. For example, if states adopt a general antismoking position, taxes could be used in conjunction with smoking bans to reduce tobacco consumption. Thus, depending on the argument, states may view taxation as a policy substitute or a policy complement to clean indoor-air laws. Second, the potential endogeneity of right-hand-side variables has not been addressed. For example, tobacco consumption is often included as a determinant of smoking bans; however, tobacco consumption may potentially be endogenous. In general, studies have found that restrictions on smoking in public places reduce cigarette demand, which implies that cigarette consumption is potentially endogenous in the reverse regression of smoking on restrictions. It is unfortunate that the literature has not addressed this possibility in a systematic manner.3 Third, except for Hersch, Del Rossi, and Viscusi (2004), studies have failed to account for differences in the demand for clean indoor-air laws across different restricted locations.This study addresses these limitations by estimating the demand for clean indoor-air laws using a panel of state-level data. By using a panel data set, we were able to control for state-specific effects that made it more or less likely that a given state had a smoking ban in a particular area. Specifically, we accounted for the potential endogeneity of cigarette consumption and taxation within a random-effects Probit model of the adoption of smoking restrictions across six locations--public places, government buildings, private work sites, schools, health care facilities, and restaurants. …

Cross shift changes in lung function among bar and restaurant workers before and after implementation of a smoking ban

Objective: To study possible cross shift effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on pulmonary function among bar and restaurant employees before and after the implementation of a smoking ban in...

Effect of local restaurant smoking regulations on progression to established smoking among youths

Background: While smoke-free restaurant laws are intended to protect the public from secondhand smoke exposure, they may also discourage smoking among adolescents. There is no evidence from longitudinal studies to...

New York City offensive against tobacco

Big Tobacco never sleeps. Happily, nor does the Big Apple. In today's Lancet, Nancy Miller and colleagues claim that large-scale free distribution of nicotine patches helped traditionally hard-to-reach groups stop smoking in New York City (NYC) in 2003: such distribution helped one in 100 smokers stop. The programme followed swingeing increases in city and state cigarette taxes from 2002, implementation of new laws about smoke-free workplaces, which effectively ban smoking in restaurants and bars, and a city-wide education campaign to promote involvement of physicians in tobacco cessation.

The Marketing and Demarketing of Tobacco Products to Low-Income African-Americans

This study examines the attitudes and behaviors of 399 low-income, primarily African-American residents of a public housing project toward tobacco usage. First, 46 percent of respondents over 18 years of age reported using a tobacco product. A number of other differences were apparent between users and non-users, with tobacco users reporting positive attitudes toward displaying clothing or products with tobacco brand names or logos. Tobacco users were also more likely to approve the use of tobacco and of tobacco commercials in magazines. As might be expected, users were less likely to support smoking bans in restaurants and increase taxes on tobacco products. As a result of the findings, recommendations are provided to reduce the smoking rates of this sub-population.

The descriptive epidemiology of local restaurant smoking regulations in Massachusetts: an analysis of the protection of restaurant customers and workers

Objectives: To describe the range of restaurant smoking regulations in the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and to analyse the level of protection from secondhand smoke exposure guaranteed by...

A mandatory smoking ban in restaurants: Concerns versus experiences

The purpose of this study was (a) to assess the concerns of restaurant representatives about a city ordinance that prohibited smoking in all restaurants prior to its enactment and (b) to determine if these concerns were realized 15 months after the ordinance had been in effect. Representatives from 34 randomly selected restaurants participated in both the pre- and post-interviews. Although 26.5 percent of the respondents were concerned that the ordinance would be difficult to enforce, 94 percent found the ordinance easy or very easy to enforce. While some customers appeared to have negative reactions to an ordinance that prohibited smoking, four times that many appeared to have positive reactions to the ordinance. Although approximately 12 percent of the respondents indicated that the ordinance had "a slightly negative effect on employees", the majority (88.2%) felt that the ordinance had either no effect or a positive effect on employees. Most respondents believed that the ordinance would have no effect on their business and most reported that the ordinance had no or no know effect on business. Although many restaurant representatives had concerns about a non-smoking ordinance prior to its enactment, restaurant representatives' self-reported experience with the ordinance suggests that most of these concerns were not realized.

The Smoking Debate: a Look At the Issues Surrounding Smoking Bans in Restaurants

There is currently a debate over whether smoking should be banned in restaurants and other public places. The public health officials are concerned about employees and customers being exposed to secondhand smoke. Restaurant owners feel they should be allowed to determine their own policies based on market conditions. The purpose of this study is to examine the issues in the smoking debate based on a survey of restaurant operators and a survey of customers in a city where a smoking ban was about to go into effect. All viewpoints were considered and conclusions were drawn based on the empirical evidence.

Smoking bans in restaurants: who is responsible and who needs protection?

Smoking bans in restaurants: who is responsible and who needs protection?