Research
by the Health Service Executive in Ireland has found that the workplace smoking
ban has encouraged people to stop smoking at home as well.
A
household survey was conducted before and after the ban came into affect. Prior
to the ban, 58% of people allowed smoking in their home but after the
legislation this has fallen to 50%.
The
researchers recommended that assertiveness programmes and media campaigns should
be used to encourage people to ask others not to smoke in their homes.
Source: Irish Medical Times 9 June 2006 at www.imt.ie/displayarticle.asp?AID=11000&NS=1&SID=1&CAT=18
(see
text below)
More
prohibiting smoking at home
By Ian McGuinness, Irish
Medical Times June 9, 2006
The 2004 work-place smoking ban has
encouraged people to prohibit it at home too, according to research by the
Health Service Executive in the West.
A household survey was
conducted before and after the ban. Before the ban, 58 per cent of people
allowed smoking in their home but, after the work-place legislation came into
effect, this fell to 50 per cent.
The number of people who
allowed smoking to take place only in restricted areas of their homes was down
from 29 per cent before the ban to 25 per cent after its introduction.
Some people who didn’t
want people to smoke in their houses said they did not feel assertive enough to
ask people not to light up in their home.
The researchers recommended
that the danger of smoke “migrating” through a house needs to be
highlighted.
They also recommended the
establishment of assertiveness programmes and media campaigns to encourage
people to ask others not to smoke in their homes.
The
research, “The 2004 Irish smoking ban: is there a ‘knock-on’ effect on
smoking in the home?” was carried out by David Evans, senior research officer
in the Department of Public Health, and C Byrne of the Health Promotion
Services. Both researchers work with the HSE West.