Cent Eur J Public Health 2010, 18(2):87-92 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3560

The Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Attitudes Towards Tobacco Control Measures - A Comparison of 5 European Countries

Jochen R. Thyrian^1,2, Demosthenes B. Panagiotakos³, Evangelos Polychronopoulos³, Marc C. Willemsen⁴, Witold Zatoński⁵, Ulrich John⁶

¹ Institute of Community Medicine, Department of Community Health, University of Greifswald, Germany

² Department of Pediatrics, University Children Hospital Greifswald, Germany

³ Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

⁴ STIVORO, the Netherlands

⁵ Epidemiological and Cancer Prevention Unit, Oncological Center Warsaw, Poland

⁶ Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Greifswald, Germany

Objectives: (a) to examine exposure to ETS in 5 European countries that differ in their tobacco control (TC) activity, (b) to examine attitudes towards TC measures and (c) to relate these results to sociodemographic and smoking related variables.

Methods: population-based, representative sample of n=3,500 participants age 16-59, in Germany, Greece, Poland, Sweden, UK.

Results: most never smokers are exposed to ETS in leisure time (55.74%); chances of being exposed to ETS at home or outside of the home are dependent on sex, smoking status, country, whether there are smokers in the households, what the status of the relationship is (single vs. not single); results differ significantly between countries.

Conclusion: smoking restrictions are associated with lower levels of actual exposure to ETS. non-smokers want governmental regulation.

Keywords: tobacco, tobacco control, environmental tobacco smoke

Received: April 29, 2009; Revised: July 1, 2009; Accepted: July 1, 2009; Published: June 1, 2010  Show citation