ABSTRACT
Restaurant and bar smoking restrictions and smoking bans are being implemented with increasing frequency in North American municipalities.
Despite extensive analysis indicating that smoking restrictions do not have any negative impacts on restaurants sales,
there is often resistance within the hospitality industry and within segments of the population to increased restriction or elimination of smoking in public eating establishments. While compliance with a total smoking ban will certainly eliminate exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in restaurants, claims are often made that less restrictive policies are also effective. As the introduction of smoking restrictions in restaurants is currently an issue of important public health policy, it is surprising how little data are available to indicate the effectiveness of various levels of smoking restrictions on ETS exposures and health impacts.
