Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Although US cigarette smoking is decreasing, hookah tobacco smoking (HTS) is an emerging trend associated with substantial toxicant exposure. We assessed how a representative sample of US tobacco control policies may apply to HTS.
METHODS
We examined municipal, county, and state legal texts applying to the 100 largest US cities. We developed a summary policy variable that distinguished among cities on the basis of how current tobacco control policies may apply to HTS and used multinomial logistic regression to determine associations between community-level sociodemographic variables and the policy outcome variable.
RESULTS
Although 73 of the 100 largest US cities have laws that disallow cigarette smoking in bars, 69 of these cities have exemptions that allow HTS; 4 of the 69 have passed legislation specifically exempting HTS, and 65 may permit HTS via generic tobacco retail establishment exemptions. Cities in which HTS may be exempted had denser populations than cities without clean air legislation.
CONCLUSIONS
Although three fourths of the largest US cities disallow cigarette smoking in bars, nearly 90% of these cities may permit HTS via exemptions. Closing this gap in clean air regulation may significantly reduce exposure to HTS.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Primack BA, Hopkins M, Hallett C, Carroll MV, Zeller M, Dachille K, Kim KH, Fine MJ, Donohue JM

Institution

Program for Research on Media and Health, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. bprimack@pitt.edu

Source

American journal of public health 102:9 2012 Sep pg e47-51

MeSH

Adult
Cities
Demography
Health Policy
Humans
Smoking
Smoking Cessation
Tobacco Smoke Pollution
United States

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22827447