 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Deleene Menefee, MA, H-NETS, University of Houston, 3855 Holman, Garrison #104, Houston, TX 77204-6015, 713-743-9919, dmenefee@mail.uh.edu, Phyllis M. Gingiss, DrPH, Department of Health and Human Performance/Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative, University of Houston, 3855 Holman, Garrison 104, Houston, TX 77204-6015, Ronald Scott, JD, Health Law & Policy Institute, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun, Houston, TX 77204-6381, and Philip Huang, MD, MPH, Bureau of Disease, Injury and Tobacco Prevention, Texas Department of Health, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, TX 78756-3199.
CDC and NCI have published coding indexes for evaluating legislation regulating exposure to Environment Tobacco Smoke (ETS). CDC’s index provided investigators with consistent state legislation data using a 4-point system that differentiates laws that allow designated smoking areas in enclosed public spaces from those that require smoking areas to have separate ventilation. NCI’s index has been utilized to evaluate local ordinances and is effective in examining nonsmoker rights in addition to issues of ventilation. Given that Texas has no state laws regulating ETS exposure in restaurants, worksites, or day care centers, local ordinances were assessed. A reconciled index was created using both systems for evaluation of the 201 municipal ordinances in the Texas Tobacco Prevention and Control Study. The goal of this expanded index was to identify discrepancies in ordinances that weakened the restriction. Only 65 of 201 municipal ordinances (32%) within the study area had provisions for tobacco control, most provided the weakest restrictions. Two municipalities required separate ventilation but neither provided any preference for nonsmokers in disputes. At baseline, no provisions were made for restaurant or bar hospitality employees exposed to ETS even when the ordinance required separate ventilation for the public. Municipalities that claimed to be 100% smoke-free often covered only certain city-owned buildings and failed to cover city-owned vehicles, workshops, or other common areas, and few indicated it as a worksite issue. Findings provided implications for ways to strengthen existing ordinances and initiate new tobacco control with a better-defined index for restricting exposure to ETS.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Tobacco Policy
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.