Strategy Five: CREATING "TOBACCO-FREE" ENVIRONMENTS

Laws and ordinances restricting smoking in public places developed out of growing evidence demonstrating the harmful effects of environmental tobacco smoke on nonsmokers, first established in the 1986 Surgeon General’s Report (USDHHS 1986). Although the Federal Government has restricted smoking in government worksites and on interstate public transportation, most of the “clean air laws,” as this type of restricting legislation has come to be known, have been implemented at the State and local levels. These laws can prohibit smoking in shopping malls, retail stores, elevators, healthcare facilities, recreational facilities, schools, government buildings, and public meeting places. The most stringent laws also prohibit or restrict smoking in restaurants and private workplaces.

Although the purpose of smoking restrictions is to protect nonsmokers, the restrictions also have effects on smoking by the general population by reducing the opportunities and by making smoking less convenient (USDHHS 2000). More specifically, smoking restriction serve to curtail the number of cigarettes smoked (Chaloupka 1992). Similar effects have been noted specifically for youth through school smoking restrictions (Ross et al. 1995).

Smoking restrictions also serve to change community norms regarding the acceptability of smoking (USDHHS 2000), and they tend to be self-enforcing (Jacobson and Wasserman 1997). That is, public smoking comes to be viewed more negatively, and smokers voluntarily comply with the restrictions.