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Updated 4 August 2006
Printable version:www.endsmoking.org.nz/smokefreepubsAug06.pdf
The trend to smokefree
workplaces, pubs, cafes and
gambling venues
THE TREND TO SMOKEFREE BARS SINCE 2000
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Figure 1 Bar workers were being
assaulted by smoke
This NZ Herald photograph illustrates a
key issue of the campaign:
Whereas
patrons had the choice to smoke, bar workers had little choice but to
be smoked over.
Health
groups, with the support of bar workers and casino workers unions,
successfully framed the issue as a workers’ rights issue, rather
than as merely a patrons’
choice issue.
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Figure
2. Public opinion on smoking in
bars, and in restaurants 2000-06
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Support
for an end to smoking in restaurants and bars rose and then faltered in
2001, but increased again with a media campaign. During 2003,
Parliament debated the bill, and a campaign around the TV commercial Lets clear the air ran August to
December; neither affected the polls. The bill passed in December 2003,
and came into force in December 2004. By 2005 69% (nonsmokers 75%,
smokers 42%) supported smokefree bars. In
April 2005, 21% said they smoked.
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Figure
4. Compliance with the ban on smoking
in 193 bars across 20 towns or cities, 2004-5
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Across New Zealand on a Friday, from
6-8 pm, NRB researchers quietly entered 193 bars
in 20 centres, and counted the number of
patrons and the number of these who were smoking at the time they entered
the indoor bar area. Those in outdoor areas were not included. The same
bars were visited on both Rounds.
Round 1, July 2004, pre-ban;
Round 2, April 2005, 5 months post-ban.)
Source: National Research Bureau carried out this research
for ASH NZ.
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THE
TREND TO THECAFE LIFESTYLE, AWAY FROM PUBS, REGARDLESS OF THE SMOKE BAN
Figure 5. Retail sales, 2001-2005,
inflation-adjusted, and seasonally adjusted
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After allowing for
inflation, bar and club sales in the June quarter remained flat, from
2001 to 2005, at just under $210 million (in 1995 $, seasonally
adjusted).
Café sales on the other hand increased 19.5% in the four
years 2001 to 2005, despite the smokeban in
December 2004.
In cafes and in bars, the smokeban did not affect prior sales trends.
Source: Table 8, Retail Trade Survey, Retail sales http://www.stats.govt.nz/
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THE TREND TO SMOKEFREE WORKPLACES SINCE 1990
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Figure 1.
Proportion of workers exposed to second-hand smoke 1989- 2005
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In the late 1990s Tuku Morgan MP introduced his own
bill. Later sponsored by Hon Tuariki Delamere, then Ms
Steve Chadwick. Health Minister Hon Annette King’s supplementary order
paper completely revised it.
In 2001-2 an array
of health groups made submissions in favour
of smokefree workplaces. Doctors for a Smokefree New Zealand collected 1000 doctors’
signatures in 8 weeks, detailing how second-hand smoke damages health,
asserted clean air to breathe was a fundamental human right, and asking
for smokefree workplaces for all workers by
2004 at the latest. DrSFNZsubmission.pdf The Health Select Committee
recommendations strengthened the bill. Now only residential situations
are not covered by the ban.
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Note the marked
decreases in the wake of:
1) the Smokefree Environments Act 1990 office smoking ban,
with effect from February 1991;
2) the 2003 Amendment with effect from 2004 ending all
remaining smoking in indoor workplaces.
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As of 2006, the law permits smoking if the owner or occupier also
permits it, - in residential and private situations, - cars, homes, hotel
and motel rooms, prisons, and in secure psychiatric facilities.
SMOKEFREE LAW HALVES SMOKERS’ CALLS TO
GAMBLERS’ HELPLINE
Figure
6. Non-casino machines versus new
calls to Problem Gamblers Helpline, 1998-05.
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Non-casino gambling
machines, years to June. Dep. Int. Affairs, 2005. http://www.dia.govt.nz Gambling Helpline, December years.
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Smokefree law halves smokers’
calls to the Problem Gamblers’ Helpline
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Immediately
the smokefree law came into effect in
December 2004, calls to the Gambling Helpline fell by one third. But
among smokers calls to the helpline fell by over half.
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In
2002-3, 58 percent of problem gamblers smoked daily, as against 22.5 percent
in the rest of the population, according to the Ministry of Health
- The expenditure by gamblers on pokies
showed a similar trend, peaking in 2004 at $135 million.
- The Gambling Act 2003, and the
Smoke-free Environments Act 2003 banning smoking indoors on all
gambling premises from December 2004, combined to curb the growth
in gambling and to decrease calls to the problem gambling
helpline, by one third, from 4300 in 2004 to 2900 in 2005.
- How much of this was due to the Smokefree law and how much to enforcement of
the Gambling Act (maximum note size $20 in pokies etc)?
- The proportion of smokers among first
time callers decreased from 42% in late 2004, to 28% by late 2005.
- The
number of calls from smokers thus decreased 55%, and calls from
non-smokers decreased 17%. (assuming the proportion of
calls from smokers were representative of that year; smoking rates altered little;
and that calls to the Gambling Helpline indicate problem
gambling.).
Simon Collins,
Smoke ban deters gamblers. NZ Herald Aug 5, 2006
p.A2.
Preventing and Minimising
Gambling Harm 2007-2010. Consultation document. Ministry of Health
August 2006. http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/5035/$File/problem-gambling-consultation-aug06.pdf
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