Intervention for Enhanced Adoption of Smoke-Free Apartment Building Policies

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Within the past decade, public advocacy and scientific discovery has prompted many state and local level governments to adopt comprehensive bans on cigarette smoking in public places. However, the implementation and strengthening of these policies has ultimately left unregulated areas, including personal living spaces, as the primary venues of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure for many individuals. The potential for involuntary SHS exposure, as well as the adverse health outcomes associated with such exposure, is particularly palpable among the nearly 80 million Americans residing in close proximity to each other in multi- unit housing facilities. Although there is currently an extensive amount of literature documenting smoke-free policy support and implementation in public places, literature assessing these issues in personal living spaces, and more specifically multi-unit housing, is limited. Consequently, this proposal seeks to extend and apply previous work in the area of SHS exposure in public places to the area of multi-unit housing. The findings could have profound implications for efforts to promote homes that are healthy, safe, and accessible, thus bringing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) one step closer towards realizing its Health Protection Goal for Healthy People in Healthy Places. To answer these questions, four studies will be performed in partnership with the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition (ENTFC), a tobacco control organization in Western New York. First, we will examine SHS transfer in multi-unit buildings by conducting simultaneous real-time air monitoring in smoking and non-smoking apartments. Second, we will perform a secondary analysis of data from nearly 2,800 tenants who participated in the New York State Adult Tobacco Survey to assess attitudes toward, and support for, smoke-free policies. Third, we will conduct a survey of New York State multi-unit building owners/managers to better understand their knowledge of SHS, experiences with SHS transfer, and perceived barriers to policy implementation. Lastly, we will evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention to increase awareness and support for smoke-free policies among owners/managers. The intervention will be founded upon the findings of the three aforementioned studies and implemented by the ENTFC. The results from all four studies will be disseminated through a website in an effort to inform future research efforts and to educate relevant stakeholders about the implications of the findings.