No Smoking Law Helps Wait Staff Quit Smoking
Posted on: Thursday, 10 September 2009, 10:53 CDT
Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have studied the impact of the law banning smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants on those working in these places. The results are positive – 5% of waiters have stopped smoking, and the number of cigarettes smoked by those who still smoke has fallen by almost 9%.
On 1 January 2006, a smoking ban came into force in public places in Spain. More than three years later, these health measures against tobacco smoking have borne fruit. A new study led by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) has shown that the proportion of smokers strongly addicted to nicotine has halved as a result of the law.
All the effects observed during this research study, which is published this month in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, have been "significantly reduced" among waiters in bars where smoking has been completely banned than among those who work in places with smoking areas, or where there are no restrictions in place. "Changing the partial ban on tobacco consumption in bars and restaurants for a total ban would have beneficial effects on the health of all the workers in this sector", Esteve Fernández, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the ICO, tells SINC.
The results confirm that 5% of waiters have stopped smoking and that, among those who continue to smoke, the number of cigarettes consumed has fallen by almost 9% (almost two cigarettes per day). In addition, levels of cotinine – a nicotine metabolite used to measure active, and especially passive, exposure to smoke – in the workers' saliva has fallen by 4.4%.
In total, 431 workers in the bar and restaurant trade were studied (half of whom were smokers) from three months before the law came into force and for a further two years afterwards. The scientists took data from five autonomous regions – Cantabria, Catalonia, Valencia, Galicia and the Balearic Islands.
References: J.M. Martínez-Sánchez, E. Fernández, M. Fu, M. Pérez- Ríos, M.J. López, C. Ariza, J.A. Pascual, A. Schiaffino, R. Pérez-Ortuno, E. Salto, M. Nebot. "Impact of the Spanish smoking law in smoker hospitality workers". Nicotine & tobacco research; 11 (9): 1099-1106; septiembre de 2009.
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Image Caption: The results confirm that 5 percent of waiters have stopped smoking. Credit: SINC
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User Comments (1)
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Posted by harleyrider1978 on 09/10/2009, 11:46 Thats odd as most people in the hospitality business SMOKE.....The smoking bans have killed most of there jobs and closed many many venues because of lost business.........croatia is modifying their smoking ban becasue of 80% losses in the bar and restaraunt trade..........the losses reported by tobacco control groups are not only bogus but out and out lies........I have lists that show thousand of closures nationwide where smoking prohibition became law......... As for secondhand smoke in the air, OSHA has stated outright that: "Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)...It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded." -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997 remember second hand smoke is 98% water vapor/STEAM.......THE REST IS WHAT MAKES UP THE OUTSIDE AIR.....SECOND HAND SMOKE IS A JOKE. |
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