Show me the smokers: An observational study of smokers in bars and taverns

Bars and taverns are often exempt from state indoor smoking laws. Loss of business is often sited as the reason by both law makers and business advocates. This seems to be fueled by the fact that bars are filled with smoke. A Canadian study fond that it takes 3 hr for a room to clear from the smoke of one cigarette possibly leading to this mis- perception. Little research has determined how many people smoke in bars and therefore if banning smoking in them would impact sales. The purpose of this study was to determine 1)the percentage of people estimated to smoke in bars by phone interview with bar owners/managers 2)determine the percentage who actually smoked in bars by unobtrusive cross-sectional observations in all the bars/taverns in the Bear River Health District in Northern Utah. A total of 60 observation were made to reach a power of 81% and an effect size of .75. Inter-rater reliability was determined with a pilot study until 90% agreement was reached. Results indicated that Bar owners/managers estimated that 71.1% of their patrons smoked while in their bar. However, only 19.8% of the patrons were observed smoking. The mean difference of smokers was 51.9%. This has a great deal of policy implications for tobacco advocates working to ban smoking in bars and taverns