The short term effect of the law prohibiting smoking in enclosed areas upon the smoking conditions of employees in Kayseri, Turkey

Aim: A law prohibiting smoking in the enclosed areas of public and private workplaces was put into effect in Turkey on 19 May 2008. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of this law upon the smoking habits of the employees in this short period of 3 months.Materials and methods: This study was performed in Kayseri, in 3 public and 3 private workplaces, comprising 868 employees. A questionnaire was filled out, face-to-face, in the second week of August.Results: The ratio of the people supporting this smoke-free law was 68.7%. Among the employees who were smoking when the law was put into effect, 5 (1.5%) of them have stated that they quit smoking because of the law, within 3 months.Among employees still smoking, 54.1% stated that the number of cigarettes they smoked in the workplace had decreased following this law, and 43.4% stated that the number of cigarettes smoked during the entire day had decreased. The mean number of cigarettes smoked had decreased from 10.8 to 8.1 in the workplace and from 15.6 to 13.0 during the entire day.Conclusion: It was revealed that this new smoke-free law has been effective in decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked, both in the workplace and during the day.