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This paper aims to review the effectiveness of a Smoke‐free Homes Project in a deprived area, Salford, in the UK. The project aimed to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke within the home, chiefly amongst households with resident smokers.

Local people from ten deprived communities were recruited as Smoke‐free Advisors, raising awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke and “rewarding” participants for making one of three smoke‐free promises, ranging from keeping their home smoke‐free (gold promise) to not smoking around children.

In nine months, the project more than doubled its original target of 1,440 smoke‐free households, achieving 3,261 smoke‐free promises. Three‐quarters of these were the full, “gold” promise. At follow up, 98 per cent claimed they had kept to their promise, with 72 per cent describing this as “fairly easy” or “very easy”. Most common reasons given for signing up were children's health or meeting a Smoke‐free Advisor. The target for 50 per cent of promises to come from households with at least one smoker was narrowly missed: 47 per cent was achieved. Although not directly targeting cessation, 81 per cent of smokers reported changes to their smoking habit: one‐quarter quitting, 14 per cent trying unsuccessfully, and 42 per cent cutting down.

Smoke‐free Homes Projects have much to contribute in terms of denormalising smoking in deprived areas.

Despite their popularity, Smoke‐free Homes Projects have rarely been evaluated for effectiveness. This project demonstrated that a three‐stage model using local people can reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, alongside smoking itself, in areas where smoking is often seen as “the norm”.

Scotland's smoke‐free legislation, introduced in March 2006, included an exemption for psychiatric hospitals. However, following the successful implementation of smoke‐free laws in almost all other workplaces in Scotland, important questions have been raised about why mental health facilities should be excluded. This study aimed to explore a move towards mental health settings becoming smoke‐free in Scotland by reviewing relevant literature, seeking the views of stakeholders and examining a number of case study hospitals who had recently or were in the process of going smoke‐free. The study found that stakeholders were overwhelmingly in favour of moving towards smoke‐free environments. Allowing smoking to continue in these settings when almost all other workplaces are smoke‐free was perceived as reinforcing the stigma attached to mental health, exacerbating inequalities in health, damaging the health of mental health professionals and potentially contributing to staff recruitment problems. Evidence from the international literature and from the case studies suggested that smoke‐free policies can be successfully implemented in mental health settings. This article discusses these findings and examines the factors that need to be considered if implementation is to be successful.

This paper aims to examine the level of smoke‐free policies in general hospitals and the barriers faced in implementing restrictive policies banning smoking inside buildings and on surrounding grounds.

A survey was developed to gather data on hospitals' current smoke‐free policies, including the challenges faced when implementing such a policy or the barriers to implementing one. The surveys were directed to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Alabama general hospitals. Responses from 47 hospital CEOs, representing 46.5 percent of the total population were obtained.

Over one‐quarter of respondents were found to have restrictive smoke‐free policies. Of this group, over one‐third experienced a hostile response from employees that smoked. Nearly 85 percent indicated that they made smoking cessation resources available to their employees. Of those that did not have a restrictive smoke‐free policy, fear of employee and patient backlash was cited as the most common deterrent against implementing such a policy.

Studies show that restrictive smoke‐free workplace policies have altered employees' smoking prevalence and consumption. Given the recent reports on the dangers of secondhand smoke, hospitals should reduce the risk of exposure to secondhand smoke for employees, patients, and visitors. Furthermore, restrictive smoke‐free policies may help to increase hospitals' bottom line.

A study examining restrictive smoke‐free policies in general hospitals and challenges faced in implementing such policies is absent from the literature. Identifying the barriers faced may help health care facilities to avoid or overcome these barriers when implementing such policies. The paper addresses the issues involved.

To reduce the smoking rates and alleviate societal problems associated with smoking, health administrators and policy makers have attempted to promote and implement statewide smoking free policy. The present study examined how adults' awareness of and attitude toward the smoke-free air law, their perceived risks of secondhand smoke and current smoking status were associated with smoking attitude and behaviors.

As part of the Indiana Adult Tobacco Survey, 2,027 respondents participated in cross-sectional telephone surveys. A series of independent sample t-test and binary logistic regression analyses were performed.

Awareness of the state law was inversely related to negative attitude toward smoking behaviors. Individuals who reported favorable attitude toward the state smoke-free air law and higher risk perceptions of secondhand smoke showed negative attitude toward smoking behaviors. Non-smokers and former smokers were significantly different from current smokers with regard to attitude toward smoking. Negative attitude was significantly related to intention to quit smoking. Awareness of the state law, perceived risk and current smoking status were key determinants for anti-smoking attitude and behavior.

Findings highlight the importance of effective dissemination of the state law and recommend a strategic intervention design that invokes risk perceptions of secondhand smoke.

To a great extent research about smoking cessation has focussed on effects from different support programs and means, in spite of that several studies have shown that over 90 percent quit smoking without such help. Factors that are important for the individual in the process from being a smoker to becoming smoke-free is less examined and also how these factors interact. The purpose of this paper is to describe typical careers or pathways that end up with a successful smoking cessation.

Respondents were recruited during Oct 2009-May 2010 via screening-questions in the so-called Monitor – project. By the turn of each month 1,500 individuals, aged 16-84, from a representative sample in the Swedish population, were interviewed via telephone. Respondents who stated being previous daily smokers, but smoke-free for at least 12 months, and agreed to participate were asked to answer a postal survey (n=1,683) concerning their process to a smoke-free life. The analyses of data included the linking of individuals between different states in the stages toward becoming smoke-free.

Several typical pathways were described and respondents with more severe smoking habits followed different pathways than individuals with milder problems. Nicotine replacement therapys or Swedish smoke-free tobacco was not found to be a component in any of the typical pathways.

Smoking cessation is a heterogeneous phenomenon and individuals can follow several pathways to become smoke-free, therefore this study adds to a more nuanced picture of smoking cessation and also expands the knowledge concerning smoking cessation in individual long-term processes.

This study aims to examine whether, in the opinion of patients selected in 13 hospitals of Hubei province, China, hospitals are smoke free. Patients were also asked whether their physicians had inquired about their smoking status.

Patients were recruited through an intercept method (i.e. stopped by the interviewer while in the hospital); data were collected through interviews, with a response rate of 96.1 percent.

Among the intercepted patients, 48.3 percent reported having seen people smoking in hospitals; 22.3 percent had seen a doctor and/or nurse smoking; 23.8 percent had smelled tobacco in hospitals; 68.4 percent reported having seen “no‐smoking” signs in hospital settings; 42.6 percent reported having been asked about smoking status in their latest visit to a doctor and 23.8 percent reported receiving tobacco cessation counseling. Compared to hospitals in large cities, patients from medium/small city hospitals reported significantly higher levels of cigarette smoking among physicians, and poorer implementation of regulations for a smoking‐free hospital, and less smoking cessation counseling by physicians.

Findings of this study point to the need for greater efforts to be made in promoting a smoke free environment in hospitals, as well as encouraging physicians to provide more smoking cessation counseling to smoking patients, particularly physicians in small and medium hospitals.

The implementation of smoke free legislation presents a huge opportunity to improve the health of people who use mental health services, as well as that of the staff working with them, say Jane Bremner and Nerys Edmonds. Here they outline how stop smoking support has been developed for mental health service users in West Surrey.

Despite overall reductions in levels of smoking in the UK, rates of offender smoking remain high. In 2016, it was announced that prisons in England and Wales would gradually introduce a smoking ban. The purpose of this paper is to explore offenders’ perceptions around the upcoming smoking ban.

A total of eight focus groups were conducted in four prisons across the North of England. Both smoking and non-smoking offenders participated in the focus groups, and thematic analysis was used to explore the findings.

Themes generated from the data were “freedom and rights”, “the prison environment” and “guiding support”. Participants discussed how the smoking ban was viewed as a punishment and restricted their freedom, with perceptions as to why the ban was being implemented centring around others trying to control them. Participants expressed concerns around the financial implications of the smoking ban on already stretched prison resources. Participants also recommended improving the nicotine replacement therapy on offer, and increasing the range of leisure activities within the prison to prepare for the smoking ban.

Overall, it was apparent that participants’ awareness of the smoking ban was generally poor. It is recommended that offenders need to be made more aware of the smoking cessation support they will receive and given the opportunity to ask questions about the smoking ban. Increasing offenders’ awareness of the ban may reduce stress associated with a perceived lack of choice around their smoking behaviours.

The purpose of this study is to examine a Midwest university in North America over a one‐year period on current smoking policies and programs, student support for implementing additional smoking policies, and to produce a follow‐up report on supporting policies that were approved by administration.

The researchers used a convenience sample from a four‐year public university located in the Midwestern USA. A four‐year public university is a publicly funded institution of higher learning awarding baccalaureate, Master's and doctoral degrees. Data were collected from administrators (n=6) and on Assessment Day of all freshmen (n=1,743) and juniors (n=643) at the university. Data were collected through document mining, a survey instrument, interviewing, and observation. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize frequency data for this study.

The data produced some interesting findings. First, the study provided college administrators with a model to follow in moving forward in developing policies for their students, faculty and staff. Second, the study offered support for implementing practical policies which may save the universities money, while protecting students, faculty, and staff from harmful environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Finally, the study addresses the need of the university to implement and enforce policies on campus that will embrace tobacco control.

The implications of this study are that other universities may utilize the steps involved in this study to move forward in developing policies for their employees, universities may utilize this information by stressing that students are less likely to begin smoking if the university or campus offers smoke‐free resident halls and apartments, and fire safety is increased by banning smoking in resident halls and apartments.

Embraces more comprehensively than previously the situation, treatment and future research regarding smoking among college students in the USA.