Smokers the butt of restaurant campaign
The Health Department is encouraging proprietors to provide smoke-free areas in Christchurch restaurants.
This has been prompted by a recent random survey of 300 adults in innercity Christchurch, which found that 272 people (91 per cent) wanted smokefree areas in restaurants. From the whole 'sample only 41 (14 per cent) said they would not use a smoke-free area, mainly because they smoked or their friends and partners smoked. Fifty-nine of the sample were smokers.
The results have formed the basis of a programme encouraging proprietors to set aside smoke-free zones in their restaurants. Two health education officers, Mrs Glen Price and Ms Karen Colley, have started approaching proprietors to discuss the
feasibility and advantages of setting up smoke-free areas.
They hope to visit the 120 or more eating houses in the inner city by late August. A list of eating houses offering smokefree areas will then be compiled. Their work is part of the department’s cardiovascular -priority area programme which also includes the Great New Zealand Smoke-free Week. Their major concern is the potential health hazard of passive smoking. Passive smoking, or breathing other people’s smoke, causes eye, nose and throat irritations in non-smokers and can particularly affect people with asthma and bronchitis.
People who had recently given up smoking also found it easier to abstain if they could avoid
smoke areas, said Ms Colley.
The programme, supported by the Christchurch City Council and the Restaurant Association, is not obligatory. Proprietors .can. .decide whether to "''’provide smoke-free areas and use “smoking” signs offered by the department. Ms Colley said that diners wanting smoke-free areas could reinforce the programme by asking for a table in a non-smoking area, asking to have the ashtray removed from the table, asking for a table away from smokers, or suggesting that a smoke-free area be provided.
A similar programme was conducted in Dunedin two years ago with good results — 40 of 120 eating houses provided smoke-free dining areas.
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Press, 24 June 1986, Page 1
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329Smokers the butt of restaurant campaign Press, 24 June 1986, Page 1
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