Prevention Matters

A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that opinions on smoking in public places are drastically changing and not to the benefit of tobacco users. Since Gallup’s first poll in 1987 on restricting smoking in public places, respondents have become increasingly opposed to smoking in restaurants, hotels, and in workplaces. The percentage of those in support of banning smoking in restaurants and hotels has more than tripled since the first Gallop poll, and has more than doubled for the percentage of those in favor of workplace smoking bans.

The 2010 Gallup poll found that 59 percent of respondents believed that smoking should be banned in restaurants, an increase when compared to the 54 percent who wanted smoking restrictions in restaurants during the 2007 Gallup poll. Partnership for Prevention is pleased that smoking bans in public places are becoming more and more popular and the risks of secondhand smoke are also becoming increasingly evident. However, only 31 percent of poll respondents favored, in bars. In fact, 23 percent of respondents actually favored having no restrictions in bars and 43 percent believed that designated areas should be set aside for smokers in bars. In addition, while only 36 percent of participants felt that smokers should be accommodated in restaurants, the majority thought that smokers should be accommodated in workplaces and hotels/motels (52% and 58% respectively).

Why this change in opinion all of a sudden?

One possible reason is that the percentage of current cigarette smokers has declined from 30 percent in 1987 to the current prevalence of 22 percent. Gallup polls have consistently shown that nonsmokers are more likely to support smoking bans compared to smokers. Thus, this decline in smoking trends could offer some explanation as to why public smoking is being favored less and less.

Another possible reason is that the public is becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of secondhand smoke, especially after the US Surgeon General’s 2006 report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. The percentage of people who perceive that exposure to secondhand smoke poses a serious threat to a nonsmoker’s health has also increased dramatically from 36 percent in 1994 to 55 percent in 2010.

These poll results suggest that we may be going further than the majority of Americans would prefer with some restrictions on public smoking, but more importantly that we may not be going far enough with other restrictions. Currently only half of all states in the U.S. have broad smoking bans that restrict smoking in public places.

The question remains however: How far should we go?

Certainly we need to protect nonsmokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke, but at what point do we have to stop ignoring public opinion? Perhaps the problem is not simply overriding the public’s opinion on smoking bans, but rather working towards educating the public and helping to change the public’s opinion on smoking restrictions in public places.

For more information please visit: http://www.gallup.com/poll/141809/americans-smoking-off-menu-restaurants.aspx


Katie Burggraf
Tobacco Control Team
Partnership for Prevention

Toronto’s ban on smoking in restaurants that led to a major decline in heart and lung hospital admissions was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the lack of progress in eliminating infections that can harm or kill patients in U.S. hospitals was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

Best

Smoking Ban Cut Hospital Admissions

Toronto's ban on smoking in restaurants led to a major decline in heart and lung hospital admissions, a Canadian medical research study said Tuesday. Smoking in restaurants was banned by the city in 2001. The research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said within three years, hospitalizations for heart conditions fell 39 percent and 32 percent for respiratory conditions, the Globe and Mail reported. Using data from two other regions in Ontario that didn't have smoking bans, the rate of admissions for heart attacks jumped by almost 15 percent during the same time period, the report said.

Worst

U.S. Hospitals Get Low Marks on Curbing Infections

U.S. hospitals are making little progress in eliminating infections that can harm or kill patients, according to reports released April 13 by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Researchers found that rates of bloodstream infections after operations (postoperative sepsis) increased by 8 percent, rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections following surgery increased by 3.6 percent, and rates of certain infections due to medical care increased by 1.6 percent. However, rates of pneumonia that developed after surgery (postoperative pneumonia) fell by 12 percent.

The United States is continuing to make great strides toward the elimination of tobacco smoke in the country’s air. According to the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, as of April 1, 2010, 32 states, along with Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia have strong state/commonwealth laws in effect that qualify for at least one of the 100% smokefree list categories (workplaces, restaurants, and/or bars). A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now have 100% smokefree air laws in effect at the local level. Adding to this growing list, by July 5, 2010, Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin will all be 100% smokefree. More specifically, 57.2% of the U.S. population now lives in cities or states with smokefree non-hospitality workplaces; 68.1% in areas with smokefree restaurants; and 57.1% in areas with smokefree freestanding bars. Forty-one percent of the population is currently protected in all three categories.

For more smokefree lists, maps and reports visit Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

Alex Einhorn
Policy and Program Intern

Just one day after announced that a ban on smoking in Seattle city parks would take effect April 1, the city's parks superintendent has relaxed that ban. Superintendent Timothy Gallagher said the revised rule will only prohibit "smoking, chewing or other tobacco use" within 25 feet of other park patrons.

The 25-foot rule is what the Board of Park Commissioners had recommended. Gallagher said he's decided that a gradual approach to a smoking ban is more reasonable.

In the UK, the National Health Service is ramping up its support for people trying to give up smoking in a bid to halve the number of smokers from 21% to 10% of the population by 2020. According to a new government strategy, every smoker will be able to get help from the NHS to suit them if they want to give up, with new types of support available at their convenience. The government is also considering the case for plain packaging and will review legislation to decide whether to extend the smoking ban from enclosed public places and workplaces to areas like entrances to buildings.

Wonders never seem to cease these days in North Carolina, where Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has become the first hospital in the state to achieve statewide "gold star" status for its tobacco-cessation programs. The rating was issued by N.C. Prevention Partners, the advocacy group that successfully lobbied for every acute-care hospital in the state to become 100 percent tobacco free. The home of Winston and Salem became the first state to achieve the milestone.

However, a reporter with the Winston-Salem Journal popped by the main campus of Wake Forest Baptist and found that there's still work to be done to gain 100 percent compliance from employees, visitors and patients.

"About 35 people braved the blustery weather for a smoke around noon, primarily in public areas along the sidewalk, a covered city-bus stop or the Shell service station on Cloverdale Avenue that's yards away from the system's Comprehensive Cancer Center," writes Richard Craver.

In recent months, the organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games have promised the competition would be a smoke-free world event. Now, it seems, at the request of a few VIP smokestacks, the health-promoting policy has been suddenly changed, and 25 smoking areas will be established at the Games. These designated areas will be for high-ranking officials only, not spectators, who must exit the security perimeter to light up.

Some are criticizing the treatment of paying spectators as second-class citizens by reserving the privilege of toxic tobacco self-pollution (without leaving the premises) exclusively for the "special people." But the bigger issue is the fact that the organizers reneged on what was touted as the first completely smoke-free Olympics.

Why did they back down? The answer: because “it was requested.” Big whoop. I say stick to your non-smoking guns. Most states in the U.S. are smoke free, as are scores of major cities around the world. And more than 20 entire countries have committed themselves to disease prevention by doing the same.

Hello, is this the Vancouver Olympic Games? I’m “requesting” that you send a message to the world that smoke-free is the new norm. These are the World Games, the smoke-free World Games (or so we had been led to believe). It has been proven all over the world that people, even important people, will get used to it. They may even like the clean air.

David Zauche
Managing Senior Fellow and Senior Program Officer
Partnership for Prevention

Anybody else notice that a recent Arctic blast hit the mid-Atlantic region just about the same time that the statewide smoking ban in North Carolina restaurants and bars took effect on Jan. 1?  Is it a sign that perhaps another place with an even warmer climate froze over? Given that North Carolina is the country's largest tobacco-producing state, few probably would be surprised.

"Even as recently as a decade ago, this was unthinkable," Ferrel Guillory, a professor and political expert at UNC Chapel Hill, told the Charlotte Observer. The new law imposes a fine of up to $50 for smoking inside bars and restaurants and $200 for business owners who permit smoking.

Some bars and restaurants have expanded their patio options to allow smoking outdoors, while others are getting around the ban by choosing to operate as a private club. But others embraced the change enthusiastically. “We expect a 15 to 20 percent increase in business,” Doug Jones, who owns Fishers Grille in downtown Greensboro, told the Greensboro News-Record. “We’ve had people say they’d bring their families if it weren’t for the smoke.”

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday refused to exempt theater actors from a statewide smoking ban during their performances. All but one of the justices voted to uphold lower-court decisions barring cigarette use in performances.

The move ends a three-year state fight in which a coalition of state and national theater groups argued in multiple courts that the ban infringed on free-speech rights and interfered with their abilities to accurately produce plays. Six justices found that regardless of whether onstage smoking is a form of expression, the ban on smoking in public places is constitutional because it aims to promote public health rather than stifle free speech.

No other state supreme court has decided a case involving a free-speech opposition to a state smoking ban, according to attorney A. Bruce Jones, who said his theater-company clients have not ruled out seeking a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the topic.

Michigan will become the 38th state to ban smoking in public places on May 1, following passage Thursday of a  prohibition by the House and Senate and a vow from Gov. Jennifer Granholm to sign the bill.  Smoking will be banned in workplaces and food service establishments, including bars, restaurants, food courts at shopping malls, cafeterias and private clubs.  The ban makes exceptions for the gaming floors at the three Detroit casinos, cigar bars, specialty tobacco shops, home offices and motor vehicles, including commercial truck.

Heart attack rates fall 17% within a year after smoking bans take effect, according to two recent analyses of laws in the USA, Canada and Europe. One analysis, which included 13 studies, appears in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. A second analysis, which considered 11 studies, appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Ever rent a car with the unpleasant lingering odor of stale cigarettes? Well, that could be a thing of the past. Beginning October 1, all Avis and Budget rental vehicles in the United States and Canada will be smoke-free. This is big!

With the advent of smoke-free restaurants and hotels, business analysts complained that customers would go elsewhere and business would decline. Hasn’t happened. Non-smokers have become loyal supporters of smoke-free environments and business establishments that have enacted smoke-free policies. Let’s prove the naysayers wrong in this case too. Smoke-free car rentals can be a popular and healthier alternative.

Kudos to the Avis Budget Group for recognizing not only the unpleasantness of tobacco smoke residue and odors, but also for discouraging smoking in a small closed environment. People’s health and dry cleaning bills will both be positively impacted.

To ensure compliance with the new smoke-free policy, Avis and Budget have new inspection processes and will assess cleaning fees if tobacco odor or residue is detected in returned vehicles. And, these vehicles will be taken out of the rental fleet until thoroughly cleaned and odor-free again.


Diane M. Canova, JD
Managing Senior Fellow
& Senior Program Officer

The governor of the nation's largest tobacco-producing state has signed into law a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. The North Carolina ban doesn’t take effect until Jan. 2, 2010. The bill's chief backer in the legislature left open the possibility that he would try in the future to broaden the new smoking ban in order to cover businesses beyond restaurants and bars.

A new study suggests that comprehensive clean indoor air policies do not lead to a reduction in hospitality jobs, and that exempting bars from community smoking bans makes no economic difference in terms of preserving bar employment.

The research, published in the June issue of the journal Prevention Science, this is the first analysis to compare the economic effects of different levels of clean indoor air policies in multiple cities. The study, led by Elizabeth Klein, assistant professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State University, examined employment trends over three years in eight Minnesota cities with different types of clean indoor air policies and two cities with no laws restricting smoking.