Earlier this month, Massachusetts became the sixth U.S. state to
pass a statewide smoking ban, joining California, Connecticut,
Maine, Delaware, and New York. Massachusetts' ban covers indoor
smoking, including bars, restaurants, and workplaces.
Gallup's 2004 Consumption Habits survey* reveals that the
American public is fairly accepting of such bans. A majority of
Americans (58%) currently say they favor a ban in their state that
would make it illegal to smoke in all workplaces, restaurants, and
bars. Four in 10 Americans oppose such a ban.
Smokers and nonsmokers, as one might expect, have very different
views on such legislation. Sixty-six percent of smokers oppose a
ban on public smoking, while 32% are in favor. Nonsmokers' views
are a precise mirror image of smokers -- 66% favor a ban and 32%
oppose it.
Women are more likely than men to favor a ban, 63% to 52%. This
is in spite of the fact that men and women smoke at about equal
rates. Opinion also varies somewhat by age: Roughly 6 in 10
Americans aged 30 and older favor smoking bans, while 46% of 18- to
29-year-olds favor them.
Economic Realities
California's smoke-free workplace law went into effect in
workplaces and restaurants in 1996 and bars became smoke-free in
1998. California's journey to becoming a smoke-free state may offer
a preview of what is in store for states currently passing smoking
bans. The state of California conducted research on the opinions of
both smoking and nonsmoking restaurant and bar patrons -- both
before and after the ban.
Michael Johnson is a Gallup research scientist and the former
chief of evaluation for the Tobacco Control Section of the
California Department of Health Services. "When we asked the
critical question of whether or not people would be more or less
likely to patronize (their favorite bar or restaurant), if there
was a ban, a majority said there would be no change or be more
likely to go," Johnson says, "and even most smokers said they would
not change their patronage."
At the end of 2001, revenues from restaurants and bars in
California had grown to $36.8 billion, up from $25.5 billion in
1995, according to a California agency that tracks taxable
transactions. "A lot of times, people approach this topic from a
health standpoint," says Johnson. "Unfortunately, that often falls
on deaf ears. People really respond to economics."
Brian Kitten is co-owner of four sports bars in Lincoln, Neb.,
where a smoking ban is being debated. He disputes figures like
those, saying they are accurate but misleading because they include
infrequently smoked-in settings such as cafes and delis, and often
make comparisons from 2001, a notoriously bad year for tourism and
service industries following the 9/11 attacks. "I've spoken with
bar and sports bar owners in cities where a ban is in place, and
they all show 20% to 40% decreases in sales following smoking bans.
We opened our business under a certain set of ground rules, and now
those ground rules are changing."
Kitten's objection raises an important question: Do public
smoking bans cause significant outrage among the smoking
population? In the recent national poll, more than half of smokers
(57%) feel the increased restrictions on smoking in public places
are justified, while 39% feel they unjustly discriminate against
smokers. These findings are consistent with results for this
question over the last decade.
Johnson doesn't believe California's smokers have been alienated
by the new law. "I think we've really changed the norms in
California. It has made not smoking the norm. Many smokers have
reported that it has helped bring them closer to being able to
quit, or at least make an attempt."
But Kitten feels such bans really are a question of civil
liberties. "They are taking away a person's right to enjoy a
perfectly legal product. I'm not going to defend tobacco. But, if
the product is so bad, then they should ban the product itself, and
not just where you can use it," he says.
*These results are based on telephone interviews
with a randomly selected national sample of 1,005 adults, aged 18
and older, conducted July 8-11. For results based on this sample,
one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable
to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage
points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and
practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or
bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
