Residual Tobacco Smoke Pollution and Consistency of Smoking Policy Implementation in Rental Cars

Smoking cigarettes in a car contaminates the car's interior with residual tobacco smoke pollutants, creating an exposure risk for nonsmokers long after smoking has ceased. Two hundred fifty rental cars were sampled from agencies in San Diego County. Agency representatives were interviewed to investigate policy, and surface wipe, air, and dust samples were collected to measure concentrations of nicotine, 3EP, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Thirty-eight national and 19 local agencies were visited more than once, and thus, examined for consistency of policy implementation. Of these, 42% of national and 21% of local agencies communicated inconsistent policy information; twenty-nine percent of national and 10% of local agencies reported divergent types of policies across visits (e.g., partial vs. total smoking ban), while 13% of national and 11 % of local agencies reported having no policy in at least one visit. Cigarette ashes were observed in 40% of designated nonsmoker, 67% of smoker, and 50% of undesignated cars, while burn marks were observed in 19% of nonsmoker, 38% of smoker, and 30% of undesignated cars. Preliminary analyses (n=139) revealed that 50% of non-smoker, 72% of smoker, and 64% of undesignated cars exhibited surface nicotine levels greater than .14 ug/m², a cut-off with good sensitivity/specificity in discriminating between privately owned smoker and nonsmoker cars. Cars designated as “nonsmoking” were not less likely to be polluted with residual SHS. The failure of existing policies to create SHS-free car environments is linked to a lack of consistent implementation and enforcement at the branch level.