Majority support state's smoking ban

Publication Date: 2010-07-20

• Publication: Triad Business Journal

After the first six months of the state’s ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, a UNC-Chapel Hill poll finds that more than seven in 10 N.C. residents support the ban.

When the ban took effect Jan. 2, North Carolina became the first tobacco-producing state in the nation to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. According to the Survey Research Unit at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, the ban is supported by 72 percent of adults in the state.

The poll found that nonsmokers, women, and highly educated respondents were more likely to support the ban.

Also, 72 percent said they would support a law that requires all indoor workplaces to be smoke-free.

Asked about how often they frequent bars, 16.7 percent said they go out more now, 70.6 percent said the ban made no difference and 12.5 percent said they go out less.