Smokefree laws lead to voluntary smokefree home policies

We just published, a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing that strong clean indoor air laws are associated with large increases in voluntary smokefree policies in the home, as well.  Although the aim of clean indoor air laws is to reduce second hand smoke exposure in public venues, our results show that these laws have the important additional benefit of stimulating smokefree homes, with a larger association in homes occupied by smokers, protecting kids and other family members from second hand smoke.    We analyzed data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), a nationally representative household survey of tobacco use. They looked at the likelihood of a person living in a home with a 100% smokefree ban, and how that related to individual characteristics, household composition, and whether the residential region is covered by clean indoor air laws. Living in a county fully covered by a 100% clean indoor air law in workplaces or restaurants and bars is associated with an increased likelihood of having a voluntary 100% smokefree-home rule, for both smoking and nonsmoking households.  In addition the presence of children in the home makes a smokefree rule more likely. Since the home remains a major source of second hand smoke exposure for children, this work shows that an additional justification for enacting smokefree legislation is the secondary effect of encouraging voluntary smokefree rules at home, particularly in homes occupied by smokers. In a related study also published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, researchers from the Moores UCSD Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego found that while public health campaigns have reduced the exposure of U.S. children to secondhand smoke at home, only half of U.S. households with both children and smokers had complete home smoking bans.   A video summarizing the studies (linked to the papers) is available for free at http://www.scivee.tv/node/35780. The articles are “Association Between Smokefree Laws and Voluntary Smokefree-Home Rules,” by Kai-Wen Chang, PhD, Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, and James M. Lightwood, PhD and “Home Smoking Bans Among U.S. Households with Children and Smokers: Opportunities for Intervention,” by Alice L. Mills, MD, MPH, Martha M. White, MS, John P. Pierce, PhD, and Karen Messer, PhD. They are accompanied by the commentary “Smokefree Community Policies Promote Home Smoking Bans: Unknown Mechanisms and Opportunities for Preventive Medicine,” by Melbourne F. Hovell, PhD, MPH, Christina N. Lessov-Schlaggar, PhD, and Ding Ding, MPH.  The articles appear in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 41, Issue 6 (December 2011).