Smoking Ban in Louisiana

Approximately 15 patrons, outfitted with a personal air quality monitor often concealed in a purse, casually ordered at restaurants and bars across Louisiana.

While the customers ate and socialized, the devices discreetly sucked air through a pump and past a laser, which measured the mass concentration of particles in the air.


They stayed at least 30 minutes before leaving the establishments, where servers and bartenders never discovered the patrons were collecting data for a researcher studying the impacts of laws restricting smoking Kent and other brands in restaurants.


"Before the ban went into effect, you did have a substantial portion of restaurants in the unhealthy to hazardous, but after the law went into effect, not a single restaurant in this study was considered hazardous," said Daniel Harrington, a researcher who studied the effects of Louisiana's tobacco regulations. "We wanted to measure restaurants and bars across the state, but we weren't trying to call out individual establishments."

Harrington, an Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, spoke Friday during the School of the Coast and Environment's weekly seminar series.

Harrington's research, "Louisiana Hospitality Workers' Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke: Impact of the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act," found "substantial change" and "big improvements" in air quality at restaurants after the law went into effect in 2007, and Harrington said these findings should further efforts to extend smoking bans in Louisiana to stand-alone bars and casinos.

Harrington measured bars and restaurants in each of Louisiana's nine Public Health Regions both before and after the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act went into effect.
"For the vast majority of young and healthy students, you're not going to expect to see significant effects [from second-hand smoke]," Harrington said. "Being a smoker is clearly a much more substantial risk."

Secondhand smoke, however, may still cause respiratory problems like asthma, and "even short term exposures to high concentrations can cause increases in heart attack rates" and other cardiovascular issues.

Harrington collaborated with both the Louisiana Public Health Institute and The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living to complete his research.

The School of the Coast and Environment's weekly seminar series continues Oct. 15 at 11:30 a.m. in the Dalton Woods Auditorium. Kristine DeLong, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, will present "Reconstructing tropical climate variability from massive corals."