City council already banned smoking anywhere on playgrounds, sports fields and outside arenas in spring 2013. There was support for an outdoor patio ban, as well, and some research had been done to gauge the impact on local businesses.
In October 2013, the Sudbury and District Health Unit surveyed 376 local bars and restaurants about extending the restrictions to outdoor patios, which are growing in popularity in Greater Sudbury. The survey found 57 per cent were in favour of the ban, and 63 per cent said it wouldn't negatively affect their sales. However, of the businesses that took part in the survey, 73 per cent didn't have an outdoor patio.
While smoking rates in Sudbury have fallen significantly over the last 10 years, 18 per cent of adults smoke, significantly higher than Ontario's overall rate of 12 per cent. The city was a pioneer in passing tougher restrictions when it banned smoking inside bars 14 years ago. That prompted smokers to line up outside to smoke, in part encouraging the development of outdoor patios.
But in a June 2013 presentation to city council, Michael Perley, head of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, said there’s a perception that outdoor patios don't affect anyone other than the smokers. In reality, he said, they are a workplace for bar and restaurant staff, and significant amounts of second-hand smoke drifts indoors.
“It makes what should be smoke-free indoor premises, smoking premises,” Perley told councillors. “Brief exposure to second-hand smoke can trigger health events like heart attacks and asthma attacks.”
In its release on the new rules, the province said the planned changes to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act are part of a plan to limit smoking in public places, reduce exposure to smoking and make it more difficult for young people to buy tobacco.
“Promoting a smoke-free Ontario is part of the government's four-part economic plan to build Ontario up by investing in people's talents and skills, building new public infrastructure like roads and transit, creating a dynamic, supportive environment where business thrives, and building a secure savings plan so everyone can afford to retire,” the release said.
The release also quoted Perely as saying the ban will protect bar and restaurant staff from second-hand smoke.
“Equally important, they’ll remove tobacco use as an apparently 'normal' part of friends and families enjoying socializing over food and drinks,” he said.
“Tobacco industry products, with no safe level of use and which kill one in two long-term users, are anything but normal. Kudos to the minister and the government for this progressive move forward."
Quick facts
-- Preventing youth from starting to use tobacco and protecting them from the harmful effects of smoke supports Ontario’s goal to have the lowest smoking rate in the country.
-- Each year, tobacco claims 13,000 lives in Ontario — equivalent to 36 lives every day.
-- Tobacco-related disease costs Ontario’s health care system an estimated $2.2 billion in direct health care costs and an additional $5.3 billion in indirect costs such as lost productivity.
– Ontario's smoking rate fell from 24.5 per cent in 2000 to 18.1 per cent in 2013, representing 332,361 fewer smokers.
