[photopress:cigarette_smoking.jpg,full,alignright]A survey conducted by the Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee and Fudan University’s Public Health College covered 33 restaurants. It wanted the answer to a simple question: did the customers want no smoking areas?
More than 82% of the 284 customers surveyed wanted no smoking areas or, more strongly, wanted a ban on smoking.
That is the customers. What about the workers who get a lung full of second-hand smoke?
Of 242 waiters and waitresses surveyed, 75% said they would be in favor of control policies.
Zheng Pinpin, a member of the survey team, said most restaurant workers complained of being subjected to secondhand smoke. And the survey showed more than 90% suffered from passive smoke during work.
Zheng Pinpin said, ‘More than 60% of the workers received complaints from customers about passive smoke, but very few said they would stop customers from smoking.’
About 70% of restaurant owners and managers said they would support smoke control policies, and 6.5% would not. Several managers said business could be affected if customers were not allowed to smoke.
In fact, the survey almost precisely, in results, follows one held in Australia before smoking was banned in all restaurants. It has made no difference to business. Probably the same will hold true in China. In Storrington in W. Sussex, England, a pub called the New Moon introduced a strict no smoking policy. Sales went up 40%.
Li Guangyao, division chief of Shanghai Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, said: ‘The main reason we conducted the survey was to dispel mangers’ fears of losing customers due to no smoking campaigns.’
Source: People’s Daily Online