Restaurant Smoking Bans Discourage Teen Smoking
A recent study shows that smoking bans imposed by restaurants could impact teens’ decisions to smoke.
The study, published in this month’s issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, involved 3834 Massachusetts youths aged 12 to 17 years from 301 Massachusetts communities.
Researchers found that youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones.
"When kids grow up in an environment where they don’t see smoking, they are going to think it’s not socially acceptable," said Dr. Michael Siegel, of Boston University School of Public Health, and the study’s lead author. "If they perceive a lot of other people are smoking, they think it’s the norm."
Participants were interviewed after two years, and again after four years.
During a 2-year follow-up, Massachusetts youths who lived in a town with a complete restaurant smoking ban had less than half the odds of picking up the habit.
Overall, about 9 percent became smokers – defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes.
Youths who lived in towns without bans were discovered to be smoking at a rate of about 10 percent, compared to 8 percent in towns with stricter bans.
Their findings support recent evidence that shows that laws imposed in restaurants to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke could also reduce adolescent smoking initiation.
“Although an abundance of literature has examined risk factors for smoking initiation, few studies have differentiated factors that influence experimentation from those that influence the progression from experimentation to regular smoking,” researchers wrote.
Studying the difference is crucial, they added, because it would allow for a more specific and effective delivery of smoking prevention interventions.
Strong bans had a bigger influence on whether smoking became a habit, reducing their chances of becoming smokers by 40 percent.
"There is really no other smoking intervention program that could cut almost in half the rate of smoking," Siegel said.
High school smoking rates have been on the decline since a statewide workplace smoking ban went into effect in mid-2004. In 2005, 21 percent of students were smokers, and about 18 percent reported smoking in 2007.
Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, parent company of cigarette-maker Philip Morris USA, said the study shows that the reasons teens take up smoking are complex.
"There is no single reason why young people engage in risky behaviors like smoking," he said. "We believe that there should be a multifaceted approach to address youth smoking."
—
On the Net: