Smoke-free restaurants in Shanghai: Should it be mandatory and is it acceptable?

Pinpin Zheng, Hua Fu and Guangyao Li

Health Policy, 2009, vol. 89, issue 2, 216-224

Abstract: Objectives This study aims to describe secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in restaurants in Shanghai and to explore the impact on the health of restaurant workers. Attitude to smoke-free restaurants among restaurant workers and customers was also determined in this study.Methods A random sample of 242 workers, 284 customers, and 46 restaurant owners participated in face-to-face questionnaire interviews.Results A total of 219 (90.7%) restaurant workers surveyed were found to be exposed to SHS during working hours with 24.2 ± 18.6 h of exposure on average per week. Exposure time each week was significantly associated with the symptoms of dyspnea and irritated eyes. Among the customers surveyed 73.9% supported the concept of a 100% smoke-free law in restaurants and 49.6% expressed that they would be more likely to eat in restaurants if smoking was banned in restaurants. And 58.6% of the restaurant owners surveyed regarded smoke-free laws banning smoking in restaurant as feasible and 56.5% estimated such bans would decrease the profit.Conclusion Both restaurant workers and customers are substantially exposed to SHS. Although some restaurant owners are concerned about a decrease in profits, the fear of losing business is not supported by the response among customers. Therefore, introducing a law-banning smoking in restaurants appears to be feasible and acceptable in Shanghai.

Keywords: Secondhand; smoke; Smoke-free; restaurants; Restaurant; workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168-8510(08)00136-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:89:y:2009:i:2:p:216-224

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu () and ().