Compendium of 100% Smoke-Free Municipal Bylaws (updated Fall 2009)
Best Practices
Evidence of the Effectiveness/Benefits of By-laws
Indirect Benefits
Municipal Smoke-free By-laws
Dr. Robert Cushman, Ottawa's Medical Officer of Health and by-law champion, advocates that “smoke-free by-laws are currently the single most important public health initiative available at the municipal level to protect the well-being of our citizens.”[1] Such by-laws are based on the conclusive scientific evidence that both short and long-term exposure to SHS produces significant adverse health outcomes.
At the municipal level, the Canadian legislative process is designed to facilitate policymaking by municipal or regional council under the authority of the province and within the scope allowed by provincial legislation.[2] Hence, in the absence of strong provincial and territorial legislation, many Canadian municipalities are taking action and enacting smoke-free by-laws to properly protect workers in their own communities. A by-law is essentially a law that applies locally, and that must be approved by a majority of council members within the limits granted by the province under enabling legislation.
The creation of a smoke-free by-law has a single purpose: to protect people from the known health hazards of exposure to SHS. Most often, municipal smoke-free by-laws are more restrictive and provide residents with better protection from SHS than is afforded by existing provincial/territorial legislation, regulations or policy. As has been observed by Lacchetti and Abernathy,[3] local smoke-free initiatives often begin with modest restrictions, but progressively gain strength and comprehensiveness over time through amendments. Although this municipality-by-municipality patchwork approach to SHS protection runs a distant second to the obvious benefits of strong and consistent provincial/territorial legislation, there are benefits. “Bottom-up” action at the municipal level can be skill-building, brings a sense of ownership over local issues, and can sometimes create a greater awareness of the law, hopefully leading to satisfactory compliance.
It is interesting to note that research in Ontario[4] on the development of smoke-free by-laws has indicated that the regulatory strength of a by-law is significantly related to the size of the municipal population. Municipalities with larger populations have a greater chance of having a strong by-law enacted. However, it is still unclear if this is a result of less public and political support in smaller communities, the absence of non-smokers' rights activism, or if smaller communities are simply more cautious about moving forward with strong smoke-free by-laws. This observation relating municipality size to by-law strength is important for communities to remember when lobbying for SHS protection. The study's authors state that the first important thing to do is to get a by-law in place for a workplace under governmental control - regardless of its strength. This is because it has been shown that with time, by-laws will evolve into more comprehensive and broader-reaching pieces of legislation.
The following section provides information on the direct and indirect benefits of municipal smoke-free by-laws, as well as resources for learning from other municipalities' experiences, how the tobacco industry works to oppose by-laws, plus much more.
[1]City of Ottawa. (2002). Ottawa's smoke-free bylaws: Lessons learned toolkit. Corporate Services, Communications and Marketing: Ottawa, Canada.
[2]Lacchetti, C. & Abernathy, T. (2001). Analysis of factors related to development, regulatory level and change in municipal smoking by-laws in Ontario. Available on-line [www.cwhpin.ca/cwhpin/reports/report_2001_05.pdf].
[3]ibid
[4]ibid
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