Public Health Partnership Legislation Reform

National response to passive smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces A Background Paper
National Public Health Partnership Legislation Reform Working Group Endorsed by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council November 2000

National response to passive smoking: Background Paper

Acknowledgments
The National Public Health Partnership would like to acknowledge the input to the development of this paper that was provided by a number of people. In particular, we acknowledge the contribution by Margo Goodin of the ACT Department of Health and Community Care who was seconded to the Department of Health and Aged Care to develop a national response to passive smoking. The paper could not have been completed without the ongoing
5.1.1 The risk of an adverse health effect occurring 5.1.2 The seriousness of the health effects caused by ETS 5.1.3 The number of people exposed to ETS 5.1.4 The ability of people to avoid ETS exposure 5.2 Reducing the risk of ETS to public health 5.2.1 Assessing public health risks 5.2.2 Exposure standards

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National response to passive smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces: A Background Paper

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6 Public opinion on passive smoking
6.1 The importance of community attitudes 6.2 Relationship between attitudes and behaviour 6.3 Public attitudes towards passive smoking 6.4 Community support for ETS protection 6.5 Public opinion alone has not caused change

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7 Current ETS management strategies
7.1 Personal avoidance of ETS 7.2 Current nonlegislative approaches 7.2.1 Public sector workplaces 7.2.2 Private sector workplaces 7.2.3 Other enclosed public places 7.3 Current legislative approaches

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8 Conclusions References

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List of
Studies have consistently shown that more than 75% of Australians believe that passive smoking causes ill health. The majority of Australians are aware of the health risks of passive smoking and supportive of measures to control ETS exposure in enclosed public places and workplaces. While there is an increasing trend for smokefree workplace policies there are anomalies in the provision of non-smoking areas particularly in the hospitality industry. One reason for the restricted spread of smokefree policies in the hospitality industry is that many hospitality industry proprietors are concerned about the loss of custom, which they believe would be associated with the provision of non-smoking