Despite well-documented inequities in tobacco use for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, there is little practical guidance for local public health officials on developing and implementing media campaigns that prioritize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. In this practice note article, we describe the development and lessons learned from a location-based media campaign to promote tobacco use cessation and raise awareness of QuitlineNC among lesbian and bisexual women in Western North Carolina. The campaign used a digital approach based on cell phone locations and marketing profiles to deliver messages across 4 years (2018–2021). Considerations for practitioners include how our project required messaging adaptation to meet Google’s restrictions against using the word “yours” and the importance of addressing privacy protection concerns with state officials to enable collection of outcome evaluation measures via a conversion pixel (code for capturing metrics).
OUTCOMES-INVITED COMMENTARY Commercial tobacco products have been protected from regulation, yet are designed to addict, are deadly, and are promoted to young people whose brains are not yet fully developed. Until everyone is protected from addiction and exposure, we must keep working toward fairness and valuebased policy, systems, and environmental change.
INTRODUCTION Smoke-free policies are effective in eliminating health hazards that can lead to chronic diseases and premature death. How hospitality businesses experience clean indoor air policies may provide leverage in States that have not adopted such policies. This study assessed whether North Carolina restaurants and bars receive complaints and/or experience benefits five years after implementation of the State's smoke-free law. METHODS A 2015 mail survey was used to assess problems, benefits, and voluntary policies (i.e., policies related to the use of electronic cigarettes indoors and outside smoke-free seating areas) among restaurant and bar owners/managers. The survey yielded 135 responses for a response rate of 20.3%. RESULTS The two most frequently selected benefits among respondents were customers breathing less tobacco smoke (65.2%) and fewer complaints about secondhand smoke (58.5%). The majority of restaurants (79.7%) and bars (71.4%) reported experiencing at least one benefit from the law. Restaurants were significantly more likely than bars to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes inside. No significant difference was found between restaurants and bars in smokefree outdoor customer areas. Bars were more likely to report problems with the smoke-free law (e.g. lack of outdoor space for smoking, compliance issues). CONCLUSIONS This study reveals successes of North Carolina's smoke-free law. The majority of respondents reported experiencing at least one benefit of the law and some reported that they had implemented additional voluntary policies. Learning more about how hospitality businesses experience smoke-free laws can help other states and communities deal with similar policy changes in the future.
Background: Despite recent legislative and voluntary policy changes, a significant number of workplaces, recreational venues, and public facilities do not offer the public full protection from secondhand smoke exposure. The current study assessed smoking policies, attitudes toward smoke-free policies, and support for policy change among business owners and managers of businesses open to the public in North Carolina.Methods: Business owners and managers were interviewed over the phone. Businesses included all airports, arcades, malls, bowling alleys, and arenas (seating more than 500) in the state as well as a random sample of grocery and convenience stores.Results: A 100% smoke-free policy was reported in 53% of businesses, ranging from 12% in bowling alleys to 97% in arenas. A large majority of business owners and managers understand the health risks of secondhand smoke exposure (82% -89%) and support restrictions on smoking in their businesses (84% -91%). Barriers to voluntary policy change included the lack of legal requirement (39%) and fear of the loss of business (53%).Limitations: This study used self-report data from business owners and managers; the accuracy of the business smoking policy, customer and employee exposure time, and number of complaints may vary across respondents. It is also possible some participants were influenced by factors of social desirability of responses.Conclusions: Continued progress in establishing 100% smoke-free indoor environments may depend on successful advocacy in instituting legislation mandating the elimination of secondhand smoke in all public places. Advocacy efforts should include education around addressing economic concerns of businesses.
Sample.The target sample included managers for all types of fairs in North Carolina, representing county and community agricultural fairs, as well as the state fair in Raleigh. The Web site of the North Carolina Association of Agricultural
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.