New laws to reduce tobacco smoking changed attitudes to the problem, but not the percentage of smokers

Abstract

Introduction The epidemic of tobacco smoking remains one of the most important challenges in public health. It is associated with premature death. For this reason, the Act of 9 November 1995 on the Protection of Public Health against the Effects of Use of Tobacco and Tobacco Products, as amended on 15 November 2010, implemented significant additional restrictions on smoking in public places. Objective The objective of this study is evaluation of the impact of smoking regulations on social behaviour and attitude to the legal forms of tobacco control, due to the new smoke-free policy. Material and Methods A secondary statistical analysis of third party data was used in the study. The material was obtained from the Public Opinion Research Centre. Polls are conducted among representative samples of about 1,000 adult inhabitants of Poland. The studies on cigarette smoking were carried out in 3 editions (2010, 2011, 2012). Results The collected data on tobacco smoking before and after implementation of the Act show that the number of smokers remained at a comparable level – about 30% (p=0.891). Between 2010–2012, an increase was observed in the percentage of people supporting the smoking ban in public places. The total number of people who definitely or rather supported the smoking ban increased from 75.6% in 2010 to 85.0% in 2012 (p<0.001). Conclusions The restrictive smoking ban in public places implemented in 2010 did not have an impact on the number of smokers in the studied time interval, although an increase in the number of people supporting the smoking ban in public places was observed.

Keywords

• tobacco cessation
• smoke-free policy
• smoking epidemiology
• public health