but it was not until 2008 that the policies got stricter. Nicotine sampling was carried out to test the drop in the PM levels in the air. In Portugal, a similar study had been conducted by Madureira et al.( 2012) where their goal was to quantify the effects in the indoor air quality after the ban on smoking in restaurants was regulated. Ten restaurants were monitored to evaluate the drop in the levels of the smoke pollutants including the CO2 and CO comparing pre-ban and post-ban of smoking policies. It was concluded that a drop of 75 % on average in Respirable Suspended Particulate( RSP) matter has been proven to justify any further proof for the government to ban indoor smoking for all the restaurants in Portugal.
Smoking has become an issue in public areas since the turn of the century. Governments have been imposing policies on certain venue types to ban smoking, which has become a topic of debate due to other dependent variables such as the users and the revenue generation. In the US, data had been collected over a period of four years from 2003 to 2007, reported quarterly, analyzing the effects on the revenue generation in bars and restaurants in Minnesota cities. 677 bars and restaurants were sampled to test against the effect of the comprehensive ban and the partial ban for smoking, on their yearly income. Surprisingly, because the importance of maintaining a clean indoor air had been advertised, customers over the years preferred to dine in areas, which they knew had a controlled and monitored indoor air quality. On average, there was an increase of 0.026 % on total revenue for venues with a comprehensive ban on smoking and 0.09 % increase on total revenue for venues with a partial ban on smoking( Collins et al. 2010).
On the other hand, a study has proven the positive effect on total revenue due to banning smoking, otherwise. A study conducted by a group of economists and health specialist( Pieroni et al. 2013) decided to assess the effect of the Smoking ban in Italian cafes and bars testing factors such as sales, earnings, number of employees, and the amount of profit, in Europe’ s hospitality sector. Being the first study that the findings are based on official administrative data, is accurate compared to surveys that are self-reported that has a high chance for the owners to inflate the amount of drop in sales, which is prone to be bias. The implementation of the ban on smoking in Italian dining venues caused a change in the smoking habits of the population, and further changed their habits of going to bars and cafes therefore causing a slight drop in the sales of such venues. Aside from the fact that smoking ban policies may or may not have an impact on the sales, which is purely from an economic point of view, it is rather important to understand the effects, of not implementing the ban on smoking, on the health of the workers. Through a random selection of 46 restaurant owners, 284 clients and 242 staff, face-to-face questionnaires were conducted to test each group’ s attitude towards the ban of smoking for indoor dinning venues. 91 % of the restaurant staff have reported health issues, such as irritated eyes and dyspnea, due to the over exposure to second hand smoke. 74 % of the clients have supported the idea of implementing a ban on indoor smoking for such venues. Amongst the restaurant owners, there is almost an equal opinion on whether banning smoking will increase or decrease their revenues and profitability. However, the important data that has been extracted is what concerns the restaurant staff and the clients, which holds a high percentage for those who are supportive of the ban. The study was intended to be submitted to the ministry of Health in Shanghai to implement the smoking ban policy( Zheng et al. 2009).
Conclusions
The results on the toxicities of the smoke emitted from each smoking aid have concluded that all types of smoke was hazardous to the human health, but on different levels. Some smoke, such
826 ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari- Lecce, Italy