Determining the ideal smoking ban for the United States : a quantitative analysis of workplace, restaurant, and bar bans

This paper investigates the effectiveness of statewide smoking bans in the United States. I use quantitative analysis to compare workplace, restaurant, and bar smoking bans in order to determine which is the most effective in decreasing smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption in the U.S. I also examine demographic variables to establish what other factors contribute to smoking and, thus, the effectiveness of anti-smoking policies. My study concludes that bar smoking bans are the most effective at decreasing both smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption over the entire population. Restaurant smoking bans are also effective in the female population, but workplace smoking bans did not have any significant effect. In addition, youth were not generally affected by smoking bans. These results have a number of policy implications which, when considered, will greatly improve the impact of anti-smoking policies