• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.293-297
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• 2009

Objectives : To evaluate the impact of the workplace smoking ban in South Korea, where the male smoking rate is high (57%), on smoking behavior and secondhand smoke exposure. Methods : A workplace smoking ban legislation implemented in April 2003 requires offices, meeting rooms, and lobbies located in larger than 3,000 square meter buildings (or 2,000 square meter multipurpose buildings) should be smoke free. A representative cross-sectional survey, the third wave (2005) of health supplements in the National Health Nutrition Survey of South Korea, was used to measure the impact of the 2003 workplace smoking ban implementation on smoking behavior. It contained 3,122 observations of adults 20 to 65 years old (excluding selfemployed and non-working populations). A multivariate statistical model was used. The self-reported workplace smoking ban policy (full workplace ban, partial workplace ban, and no workplace ban) was used as the key measure. Results : A full workplace smoking ban reduced the current smoking rate by 6.4 percentage points among all workers and also decreased the average daily consumption among smokers by 3.7 cigarettes relative to no smoking ban. Secondhand smoke showed a dramatic decrease of 86 percent (= -1.74/2.03)from the sample mean for full workplace ban. However, public anti-smoking campaign did not show any significant impact on smoking behavior. Conclusions : The full workplace ban policy is effective in South Korea. Male group showed bigger impact of smoking ban policy than female group. The public antismoking campaign did not show any effectiveness.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.705-714
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• 2012

Objectives: This study assessed the associations between socio-demographic, health and wellbeing variables (independent variables) and daily smoking, attempts to quit smoking, and agreement with smoking ban (dependent variables). Methods: Data from 3,706 undergraduate students were collected from seven universities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland using a standardised questionnaire. Results: About 15.8% of the whole sample reported daily smoking, while 12% were occasional smokers. Smoking was significantly more prevalent among males, but the difference was due to a higher rate of occasional smokers. About every second smoker (55%) had attempted to quit smoking. Almost 45% of the whole sample agreed or strongly agreed with implementing a total smoking ban on campus. Daily smoking was more likely among students with not sufficient income, students whose fathers had at least a bachelor degree; and, students who reported binge drinking. Conversely, daily smoking was less likely among students who rated their health as very good/ excellent, those who ate ${\geq}5$ portions of fruit or vegetables, and those who had never taken illicit drugs. Previous attempt/s to quit smoking were more likely among students who have never taken illicit drugs and those who agreed with a total smoking ban; and less likely among those with not sufficient income. Daily smokers were less likely to report quit attempts as compared to occasional smokers. An agreement with smoking ban was more likely among students who rated their health as very good/excellent, those who ate ${\geq}5$ portions of fruit or vegetables daily, and those who had never taken illicit drugs, but less likely among daily smokers. Conclusion: Favourable health practices and positive attitudes towards smoking ban were associated with each other. Interventions would need to comprise multi-component programmes that do not solely focus on smoking prevention/cessation, but also on other health promoting practices as well.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.127-153
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• 2009

There is a growing concern about potential harmful effect of second-hand or environmental tobacco smoking. As a result, smoking bans in workplace become more prevalent worldwide. In Korea, workplace smoking ban policy become more restrictive in 2003 when National health enhancing law was amended. The new law requires all office buildings larger than 3,000 square meters (multi-purpose buildings larger than 2,000 square meters) should be smoke free. Therefore, a lot of indoor office became non smoking area. Previous studies in other counties often found contradicting answers for the effects of workplace smoking ban on smoking behavior. In addition, there was no study in Korea yet that examines the causal impacts of smoking ban on smoking behavior. The situation in Korea might be different from other countries. Using 2001 and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition surveys which are representative for population in Korea we try to examine the impacts of law change on current smoker and cigarettes smoked per day. The amended law impacted the whole country at the same time and there was a declining trend in smoking rate even before the legislation update. So, the challenge here is to tease out the true impact only. We compare indoor working occupations which are constrained by the law change with outdoor working occupations which are less impacted. Since the data has been collected before (2001) and after (2005) the law change for treated (indoor working occupations) and control (outdoor working occupations) groups we will use difference in difference method. We restrict our sample to working age (between 20 and 65) since these are the relevant population by the workplace smoking ban policy. We also restrict the sample to indoor occupations (executive or administrative and administrative support) and outdoor occupations (sales and low skilled worker) after dropping unemployed and someone working for military since it is not clear whether these occupations are treated group or control group. This classification was supported when we examined the answers for workplace smoking ban policy existing only in 2005 survey. Sixty eight percent of indoor occupations reported having an office smoking ban policy compared to forty percent of outdoor occupation answering workplace smoking ban policy. The estimated impacts on current smoker are 4.1 percentage point decline and cigarettes per day show statistically significant decline of 2.5 cigarettes per day. Taking into account consumption of average sixteen cigarettes per day among smokers it is sixteen percent decline in smoking rate which is substantial. We tested robustness using the same sample across two surveys and also using tobit model. Our results are robust against both concerns. It is possible that our measure of treated and control group have measurement error which will lead to attenuation bias. However, we are finding statistically significant impacts which might be a lower bound of the true estimates. The magnitude of our finding is not much different from previous finding of significant impacts. For cigarettes per day previous estimates varied from 1.37 to 3.9 and for current smoker it showed between 1%p and 7.8%p.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2547-2556
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• 2012

Objectives: Smoking among university students represents a formidable and global public health challenge. We assessed the associations between socio-demographic, health and wellbeing variables as independent variables, with daily smoking, attempts to quit smoking, and agreement with smoking ban as dependent variables. Methods: A sample of 3258 undergraduate students from eleven faculties at Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, completed a general health questionnaire. Results: Overall daily or occasional smoking in last three months prior to the survey was about 9% (8% occasional and 1% daily smokers), and smoking was generally more prevalent among males (male=17%, female=0.6%, P < 0.001). After adjustment for confounders, not having normal BMI and having a mother who completed at least bachelor's degree education was positively associated with daily smoking, and conversely, no history of illicit drug use was a protective factor. About 76% of smokers had attempted to quit smoking within the last 12 months prior to the survey. Although a large proportion of students agreed/strongly agreed with the banning of smoking at university altogether (87%), such agreement was less likely among smokers. Conclusion: There is need for implementation of non-smoking policies on university premises, as well as regular up-to-date information on, and the periodic/yearly monitoring of tobacco use by university students employing standardised data collection instruments and reference periods. In addition, it would be valuable to develop campus-based educational/ awareness campaigns designed to counteract tobacco advertisement directed towards young people in Middle East countries. Otherwise, the danger could be that the current relatively low smoking prevalence among university students may escalate in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-20
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of health promotion policies about antismoking, and the relationship between policy status, enforcement of smoking restrictions and perceptions of smoking behaviour among teachers. A representative sample of 173 teachers$.$school inspectors from 150 elementary$.$middle$.$high schools in Gangwon-do was surveyed during Gangwon-do Office of Education's antismoking and temperance training course in 2002 (response rate 60.7%). One staff member from each school was also analyzed regarding school antismoking polices for students and teachers in several locations within and outside the school building. The results showed that 118 elementary$.$middle$.$high schools (78.7%) had an antismoking policy and more schools had a written policy on student antismoking than on teacher antismoking. Most schools (92.4%) in the sample banned smoking by students, but 52 schools (44.1%) allowed smoking by teachers in restricted areas. However, teachers reported seeing smoking sometimes in the toilets (42.7%) or the playground (40.0%) among students and sometimes in the staff room (31.3%) or about every day on school premises (52.7%) among teachers. Irrespective of the type of policy or restrictions on smoking, the association between having a ban on student/teacher smoking and teachers' perceptions of student/teacher smoking in school was not significant. In conclusion, we suggest that most schools must have explicitly an antismoking policy on both students & teachers and enforce consistently a ban in promoting a healthy school environment(smoke-free schools).

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.2833-2839
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• 2016

Background: Tobacco use among youth is a major public health problem. Youth outside of formal school settings are often understudied but may be at increased risk. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 326 young people aged 15-24 years in four randomly selected motor parks in Lagos state. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Results: The mean age of the respondents was $21.0{\pm}2.3yrs$. Many 252 (77.3%) dropped out before the end of the third year of secondary schooling. The majority were aware that active (78.2%), and passive smoking (77.3%) are harmful to health. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents disagreed with an outright ban of cigarettes (63.2%) and restriction of cigarette sales to persons below 18 years (67.9%) while 254 (66.8%) supported a ban on tobacco smoking in enclosed public places. One hundred and fifty (46.0%) respondents had experimented with smoking of which 106 (32.5%) had progressed to become current smokers. Half of the current smokers, 54 (50.9%), felt the need for a cigarette first thing in the morning. A multivariate analysis for smoking initiation, showed that for every increasing year of age, respondents were 1.08 times more likely to have initiated cigarette smoking; males and respondents who lived alone or with peers were 2.34 times and 1.77 times more likely to have initiated smoking respectively; those who consume alcohol and marijuana were 7.27 and 1.89 times respectively more likely to have initiated smoking while those who consumed alcohol were 6.17 times more likely to be current smokers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.586-594
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• 2022

Objectives: This study investigated the effectiveness of the social marketing mix approach in increasing students' knowledge about smoking, promoting positive attitudes toward smoking cessation, and decreasing smoking behavior. Methods: This quantitative research study incorporated a quasi-experimental method with a pretest-posttest non-equivalent group design. Using the purposive sampling technique, 152 smoking students were selected as participants. They were divided into 2 equal groups, with 76 students in the control group and 76 in the intervention group. The data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed with the chi-square test, independent t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: The social marketing mix intervention was effective in increasing the students' knowledge about smoking (p<0.001), improving their attitude toward smoking cessation (p<0.001), and reducing their smoking behavior (p=0.014). Conclusions: This approach should be implemented by local governments to reduce smoking behavior in the community, especially among teenagers, in addition to instituting a smoking ban and applying fines.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.402-406
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• 2017

Transit workers constitute a blue-collar occupational group that have elevated smoking rates relative to other sectors of employed adults in the United States. This study analyzed cross-sectional tobacco survey data from 935 workers (60% African American; 37% female) employed at an urban public transit agency in California. Prevalence of current and former smoking was 20.3% and 20.6%, respectively. Younger workers were less likely than older workers to be current or former smokers. Having a complete home smoking ban was associated with decreased likelihood of being a smoker [odds ratio (OR) = 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.01-0.17], as were neutral views about whether it is easy for a smoker to take a smoking break during their shift (OR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.28-0.88). Current smoking among the sample is > 50% higher than the adult statewide prevalence. Potential points of intervention identified in this study include perceived ease of worksite smoking breaks and establishing home smoking bans. Tailored cessation efforts focusing on older transit workers more likely to smoke are needed to reduce tobacco-related disparities in this workforce.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 2016

Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine the indoor level of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and to assess the implementation rate of smoke-free laws at hospitality venues around a university campus by measuring particulate matter smaller than $2.5{\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$) as an indicator of ETS. Materials and Methods: We measured indoor $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations at 20 PC game rooms, 20 pubs, and 20 billiards halls using Sidepak AM510, a direct reading portable real time monitor, from October to December 2015. Results: Smoking was observed in 65% of the PC game rooms, 10% of pubs, and 85% of billiards halls. The average $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations were $98.2{\mu}g/m^3$, $29.0{\mu}g/m^3$, and $134.2{\mu}g/m^3$ at PC game rooms, pubs, and billiards halls, respectively. $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations in PC game rooms and billiards halls were 2 to 2.7 times higher than the 24-hour exposure standard for outdoor $PM_{2.5}$ ($50{\mu}g/m^3$) by the Ministry of Environment. Conclusions: Although a smoking ban has been implemented for PC rooms and pubs, smoking is still taking place in many of these places. More stringent legal action is required for successfully protecting patrons and workers from secondhand smoke exposure. A ban on smoking in billiards halls should be introduced as quickly as possible.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.91-100
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• 1998

This study aims to investigate smoking patterns in high school student and to give student smoker effective information. The sample of 250 male highschool students out of two different schools in Tae-Jon was questioned from July 10th to 15th. 1995. In analyzing these date. the statistics shows the realities by means of number of students. The results are summarized into 17 items as follows. Regarding the level of smoking. 140 students out of 250 admit that they have ever smoked. 52.1% of smoking students say that the motivation of beginning smoking is mainly curiosity. The survey shows that 22.9% of smoking students feel very good when smoking. It also shows that 30.0% of smoking students began smoking in the first grade of high school. With regard to the volume of smoking per day. 41.4% of smoking students smoke variably. 42.1% drink when smoking. 15.0% spend more than W 70.000 a month. About the question who knows the fact of their smoking. 51.5% answer that their friends know the fact of their smoking. In regard to the resaltionship between smoking and school per-formance. 18.2% of non smoking students make poor grades as compared with 40% of smoking students. 9.3% of smoking students say that they are satisfied with the school life. but 35.7% of them are not satisfied. Regarding the attitude to smoking teachers. 35% of smoking students state that they are affected by them. 69.3% of smoking students say that they will stop smoking. while the remaining 30.7% say that they will keep smoking. The reason of 63.9% to stop smoking is that smoking is bad for the health. The reason of 46. 5% to keep smoking is the acquired habit of smoking. 97.2% know the fact that the major element of cigarettes is nicotine and it is very harmful to the health. 40.8% recognize the harmful effect of smoking by TV and radio programs. 97.2% know that smoking could cause lung cancer. From the above results. I propose as follows We should make specific plan to keep smoking by simple curiosity from being developed into habitual smoking. We should teach them how harmful smoking is and make them stop smoking by themselves. It is very essential for family members and teachers to give continuous interest since childhood. As the teacher affect the students very much, they should give up smoking first. The incidence of smoking should be identified in each of the middle and high schools. smoking prohibition programs relevant to each school should be developed and implemented. The local community should ban cigarette vending machines. Cigarettes should not be sold to adolescents. By setting every place where adolescents gather including schools nonsmoking area. we should decrease their impulse to smoke. then smoking opportunities. and harmful effects to them caused by passive smoking.