Persistent Smoking in Bars: An Ethnographic Analysis
Principal Investigator: Roland S. Moore, Ph.D.
Project Manager: Juliet P. Lee, Ph.D.

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This study is designed to investigate beliefs and behavior surrounding tobacco smoking within diverse San Francisco bars in which smoking has been banned. Building upon the literature on bar behavior and the research team's experience studying substance use among workers in different settings including bars, the proposed study will describe patrons', bartenders', and managers' normative understandings of tobacco use, second-hand smoke, and the extent to which California Assembly Bill 13 applies to them. The overall goal of the proposed study is understanding how and why many stand-alone bars are in non-compliance with California Assembly Bill 13.

The proposed research design consists of a two-year study using semi-structured interviews as well as both highly structured and qualitative observations. A random sample of stand-alone bars (that is, bars that are unconnected to restaurants) to study will be drawn from mapped data on alcohol outlets throughout the city. Because the San Francisco Department of Public Health's Tobacco Free Project recently found only 40% of stand-alone bars to be in compliance with California Assembly Bill 13, the final sample of 60 stand-alone bars is expected to include roughly equal numbers of non-compliant bars and compliant bars. Experienced anthropologists will conduct a total of 80 open-ended interviews with patrons, bartenders, and managers of these randomly selected bars in San Francisco. Four pairs of skilled observers will use handheld computers to record structured observations during four waves of visits in and around these bars. In order to learn what distinguishes compliant from non-compliant bars, these observational settings will include sites where smoking occurs as well as those where smoking is discouraged.

This study will focus on the stand-alone bar as the site of analysis because it represents an environment in which the greatest California Assembly Bill 13 compliance problems occur. The stand-alone bar is the public setting in which the population of patrons and employees is at greatest risk for exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. This study's findings will produce understandings of the range of bar patron and employee smoking norms and specific rationales for not complying with the ban. These findings constitute a necessary precursor for large-scale preventive efforts with relevance to this population. Accordingly, the proposed study should shed light on how to reduce a health problem faced not only by San Francisco bar employees and patrons, but workers and customers in non-compliant bars throughout the state as well.


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