PUTNAMVILLE — A new poll suggests that a majority of rural Hoosiers would support a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law.
The Indiana Rural Health Association announced the survey results during a news conference Thursday at its Terre Haute satellite office.
The survey shows that two-thirds (66 percent) of adults in rural Indiana would support an ordinance in a nearby city requiring all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, to be totally smoke-free.
The majority of those polled (85 percent) agree that all workers should be protected from secondhand smoke in the workplace. Sixty percent of smokers agreed, said Don Kelso, executive director of the Indiana Rural Health Association.
The results show that Indiana’s rural communities “are fully supportive of a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law that makes all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, smoke-free permanently,” Kelso said.
The Survey Research Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis conducted the public opinion poll, which involved 2,418 adult residents in four rural counties: Clay, Lawrence, Montgomery and Warren.
The survey, which took place between February and April of 2009, measured current tobacco use, knowledge, behaviors and attitudes regarding smoking in public places. The margin of error was less than 4 percent.
The data are representative of rural Indiana, said Miranda Spitznagle of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, which requested the survey.
In other results, four out of five (82 percent) of those rural residents surveyed, including half of smokers, agree that restaurants, bars and workplaces and other enclosed public places would be healthier for customers and employees if they were smoke-free.
“There is a strong understanding among rural Indiana residents of the hazards of second-hand smoke,” Spitznagle said.
Also, there is no indication that passage of a smoke-free air law would have a negative impact on local business, according to survey results. If anything, there is some evidence that business might increase, she said.
The new poll, combined with prior statewide polling, affirms the need for a statewide smoke-free air bill that protects all workers, both rural and urban, from the dangers of secondhand smoke, said Danielle Patterson, chairwoman of the Indiana Campaign for Smoke-free Air.
Smoke-free workplace policies are the only effective way to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure, she said.
The Campaign for Smoke-free Air “asks the Indiana General Assembly to join 28 other states that have gone smoke-free and pass a law that protects all Hoosiers,” Patterson said. “Hoosiers are ready. It is time that we move this state forward.”
In Indiana, 12 municipalities have adopted comprehensive smoke-free workplace ordinances that protect all workers, Kelso said.
Smoking costs Indiana more than $7 billion annually in workplace productivity losses, health care expenses and premature death, according to a report released by the American Lung Association in September.