The impact of smoke-free legislation on indoor air quality in bars in ...

4. Impact on Air Nicotine
4.1 Introduction
In this section, the results <strong>of</strong> the pre and post <strong>legislation</strong> nicotine sampling are presented.
Nicotine, in its gaseous phase, was measured in a total <strong>of</strong> 51 bars pre <strong>legislation</strong> and 50 bars
(three months) post <strong>legislation</strong>. Statistical analysis was undertaken on the 50 bars that had
both pre and post <strong>legislation</strong> data.
4.2 Air Nicotine concentrations
Figure 4.1 shows air nicotine concentrations before and after the introduction <strong>of</strong> the smoking
<strong>legislation</strong>. Before the <strong>legislation</strong>, 78% <strong>of</strong> bars had air nicotine concentrations above 10
μg/m 3 with 94% having concentrations at the „significant risk‟ (<strong>of</strong> lung cancer) level <strong>of</strong> 6.8
μg/m 3 or above (Repace et al, 1993, 1998, cited in Mulcahy et al. 2005b) and 14% having
concentrations above 40 μg/m 3 . After the <strong>legislation</strong>, 96% <strong>of</strong> bars had air nicotine
concentrations at the „significant risk‟ level <strong>of</strong> 6.8 μg/m 3 or less and 4% <strong>of</strong> bars having a
concentration greater than 6.8 μg/m 3 . <strong>The</strong> highest air nicotine value recorded pre <strong>legislation</strong>
was 152.6 μg/m 3 whereas post <strong>legislation</strong> this was 15.7 μg/m 3 .
Figure 4.1: Air Nicotine concentrations before and after the smoking
30%
20%
Percent 40%
10%
0%
0%
24%
Up to 1
<strong>legislation</strong>
2%
1.1-2
30%
0%
2.1-3
30%
4%
3.1-5
12%
16%
2%
5.1-10
32%
10.1-20
Nicotine concentration ug/m3
2%
32%
Before <strong>legislation</strong>
After <strong>legislation</strong>
0%
20.1-40
14%
0%
Over 40
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