Smoking ban research
50% of North West pubs and bars would be exempt
Around 50% of all pubs and bars in the North West would be exempt from UK Government proposals to make public places and workplaces smokefree because they do not serve food.
Dr Karen Tocque, Director of Research at the North West Public Health Observatory and Dr Ivan Gee, also based in LJMU's Centre for Public Health, carried out the largest and most comprehensive study to date of the likely impact of the Government's White Paper 'Choosing Health' with colleagues from the University of Manchester.
The team surveyed 1150 pubs and bars across 14 local authorities across the North West to assess whether pubs and bars in disadvantaged areas would be less likely to prepare and serve food, and more likely to allow smoking.
They found that 44% of the pubs and bars across a large area of North West England do not serve food and would be exempt from smokefree legislation when it comes into force. This figure is far higher than the 10-30% predicted by the Government, confirming a preliminary study carried out earlier this year by the British Medical Association. The proportion of pubs not serving food is likely to increase to 47% once the ban is instituted, according to the BMC Public Health study.
In addition, the researchers found that the proportion of pubs and bars not serving food increases with the level of deprivation: only 21% of the pubs located in richer areas do not serve food, compared to nearly two-thirds (63%) of the pubs in the most deprived areas.
''It is highly probable that this socio-economic gradient in the location of food/non food serving establishments will also exist in other parts of England,'', add the authors.
The authors conclude that the impact of the partial smokefree policy would ''work against the stated Government objective of reducing health inequalities due to smoking''.
The team surveyed 1150 pubs and bars across 14 local authorities across the North West to assess whether pubs and bars in disadvantaged areas would be less likely to prepare and serve food, and more likely to allow smoking. 