Comprehensive smoking bans and tobacco use among substance abuse treatment counselors

Objectives: While indoor smoking bans reduce employee tobacco use, less is known about whether comprehensive bans of smoking in both indoor and outdoor areas are associated with lower rates of tobacco use than indoor-only bans. Methods: Using survey data from 1,923 counselors, this research examined correlates of counselors' self-reported current tobacco use, including working in a program with a comprehensive smoking ban (vs. an indoor-only ban), age, gender, race/ethnicity, personal recovery status, education, and treatment program type. Results: About 20% of counselors reported currently tobacco use, and 20% of counselors worked in treatment programs that had a comprehensive smoking ban. At the bivariate level, counselors working in programs with comprehensive bans were 44% less likely to be current tobacco users than counselors working in programs that only banned smoking indoors (odds ratio, OR = .57, p=.001); controlling for demographic variables resulted in minimal change in the magnitude of this association (OR=.56, p=.001). Other significant covariates included age (OR=.98, p<.001), being personally in recovery from substance abuse (OR=2.70, p<.001), having a master's-level degree or higher (OR=.41, p<.001), and working in a therapeutic community program (OR=1.49, p<.01). Conclusions: Although relatively few substance abuse treatment counselors work in treatment programs that ban smoking both indoors and outdoors, this type of comprehensive smoking ban was negatively associated with the likelihood of current tobacco use when compared to an indoor-only smoking ban. Comprehensive indoor and outdoor smoking bans may be a useful method for reducing employee tobacco use.