Moving their butts around outside
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Outdoor smoking areas just aren't suiting smokers' needs
By Alicia Roberts
(Guelph, November 27, 2006)
Designated smoking areas are fine . . . as long as you’re not a smoker. These areas are typically in remote, isolated locations — purposefully located away from places non-smokers congregate — which deters smokers from using them. Instead, when smokers go outside, they tend to gather near entrances and overhangs, especially in cold weather. Non-smokers end up being exposed to second-hand smoke, and conflict can ensue.
Landscape architecture professor Nate Perkins of the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Design and Rural Development thinks the whole issue needs re-examining and that designers and planners need to find smokers places that are “accessible yet not problematic.” He and colleagues at the University of Toronto are finishing a three-year study principally funded by the Canadian Cancer Society to pinpoint causes of misuse of designated smoking areas and make those areas less contentious for all users.
Perkins’ colleagues met with focus groups in 2003 to look closely at smoker and non-smoker interactions and the attitudes both groups hold in their shared environments. After many Ontario cities implemented a smoking bylaw requiring smokers to take it outside, smokers and non-smokers alike felt a sense of discrimination, he says.
Smokers will be more apt to use designated smoking areas that are convenient, says a University of Guelph researcher.
Photo credit: Kyle Rodriguez
The focus groups were followed by more than a year of behavioural observations in 12 Toronto locations. The results indicated that smokers are influenced by physical and social factors such as location of seating, sightlines, shelter, types of users and unwritten social norms. Although smokers and non-smokers rarely interacted in smoking areas, most smokers were considerate of others while smoking outside. For example, many smokers would move to locations away from gathering areas.
Perkins believes it’s important to understand how social and physical factors influence where and when people smoke, to understand outdoor smoking areas and develop smoking policies better suited to these environments.
He says design recommendations that come out of this study may increase compliance with non-smoking regulations through the use of visual cues, such as increased use of signs and ashtrays and more clearly defined boundaries.
“Smoking is as much a social activity as it is anything else,” says Perkins. “We need to determine the kinds of facilities this behaviour requires, then focus on bringing smokers to those areas.”
He hopes that reducing the conflict between smokers and non-smokers could also influence social norms about smoking, which might result in more attempts to quit smoking and a lower incidence of relapse.