The results from this study will help clarify whether smoke-free policies are associated www.selleckchem.com/products/crenolanib-cp-868596.html with smoking-related attitudes, norms, and behaviors across sociocultural and political contexts (Fong, Cummings et al., 2006; MacKinnon, Taborga, & Morgan-Lopez, 2002). Policies that create smoke-free public spaces appear to promote smoking cessation by decreasing the social acceptability of smoking (Jacobson & Zapawa, 2001; Wasserman et al., 1991). Among adult smokers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, baseline self-reported exposure to stronger smoke-free policies in restaurants and workplaces was associated with stronger baseline antismoking norms, which in turn predicted having quit after 9 months (Hammond, Fong, Zanna, Thrasher, & Borland, 2006).

In another study, adult smokers who lived in U.S. towns with stronger smoke-free restaurant and bar policies viewed smoking in restaurants as less socially acceptable than did smokers in towns with weaker policies (Albers, Siegel, Cheng, Biener, & Rigotti, 2007). A different study using the same data derived a composite index of smoke-free and youth access policies in local communities, finding that the combined strength of these policies was positively associated with adults�� and youths�� perceptions of antismoking norms (Hamilton et al., 2008). However, results from longitudinal studies have yielded inconsistent or null results when assessing changes in social norms after smoke-free policies are implemented.

For example, workplace smoke-free policies have not caused expected changes in smokers�� perceptions of whether their coworkers disapprove of smoking or encourage them to quit (Biener et al., 1989, 1999; Gottlieb et al., 1990). If smoke-free AV-951 policies successfully displace smoking to areas beyond the purview of nonsmokers, then these policies may actually reduce opportunities for people to offer smokers cues to quit (Gottlieb et al., 1990). Smoke-free policies may nevertheless embolden some people to tell smokers not to smoke when they share the same space. Focus groups and surveys in California indicate that Latinos are reluctant to ask people not to smoke when with them, a predisposition that researchers suggest comes from Latinos�� cultural emphasis on harmonious social interactions and avoidance of disagreement, particularly in public (Baezconde-Garbanati, Portugal, Barahona, & Carrasco, 2007). This cultural orientation also appears to help explain why self-reported SHS exposure at work is higher among Latinos than among other ethnic groups in California, even though Latinos have the highest prevalence of smoke-free homes (Baezconde-Garbanati, Beebe, & Perez-Stable, 2007; Baezconde-Garbanati, Portugal, et al., 2007).