Impact of the smoke-free policy on reducing risk of exposure to secondhand smoke in Taiwan

Background In 2009, the Taiwan government imposed a smoke-free ordinance by amending the Taiwan Tobacco Hazards Prevention Amendment to extend smoke-free areas to include almost all enclosed workplaces and public places. This study breaks down the policy effects of the ordinance on different population groups to explore and examine unexpected consequences of the policy. Methods We used pooled data for the years 2006-2011 from the national cross-sectional Taiwan Adult Tobacco Survey , to examine exposure to SHS among nonsmokers and to evaluate the effect of the 2009 smoke-free law on the exposure to secondhand smoke in homes and workplaces in Taiwan.

Results The overall exposure to SHS at home and in the workplace decreased from 38.8% to 24.7%. The 2009 smoke-free policy significantly reduced exposure to SHS at home for never smokers (OR=0.49, 95%CI: 0.44-0.55) but not for former smokers (OR=0.84, 95%CI: 0.65-1.09). Women experienced a reduced exposure to SHS at home after 2009 ordinance (OR=0.44, 95%CI: 0.38-0.51), while no significant decline in exposure to SHS at home was found among men (OR=1.09, 95%CI: 0.91-1.30). The SHS exposure at the workplace declined significantly after Year 2009 for both men (OR=0.40, 95%CI: 0.31-0.52) and women (OR=0.47, 95%CI: 0.35-0.63) . Conclusions Our study showed significant gender differences and smoking-status differences in the consequences of Taiwan's smoke-free ordinance on risk protection from SHS. Further monitoring of smoke-free policies is needed to discover the unexpected consequence of these policies on reduction of the risk of SHS exposure at home among other population groups.