Knowledge and attitudes of cafe, restaurant and pastry shop owners towards the the new tobacco law in the centre of Malatya province

The aim of this research is to find out the applicability of the new tobacco law by investigating the knowledge and the attitudes of the cafe, restaurant and pastry shop owners before comprehensive smoking ban.Using the stratified systematic sampling method, 280 out of 778 business establishments were selected in the city center of Malatya. The questionnaire was applied to the owners of the establishments, via face to face interviews, from November to December, 2008The average age of the establishment owners participating in the survey is 39.5 ± 10.8 and 276 of them are male. Sixty four of the owners of the 280 establishments run the business alone. In the other 216 establishments, each establishment has an average of two employees. Out of 280 establishments, 176 owners were found to smoke and the median smoking duration is 19 years. The owners, who smoke, smoke 20 cigarettes (median) in one day. In the 174 of the 280 establishments, two employees smoke per each establishment. Employers of 174 establishments out of 216 establishments, two persons per establishment smoke. In the establishments, 38.2% of the owners is primary school or below educated, 56.1% are middle school or high school graduate and 5.7% has a university degree. It was found that only 46% of the owners of the establishments heard about the new tobacco law and knew its content. The percentage of the cafe owners believing that the new law will reduce both the number of the customers and income is 96.7%. The percentage having this belief in the other establishments is 63.2% (p<0.05). Among the other establishment owners, except for cafes, 82.1% thinks that the law will be as effective as in the case of public buses. But among cafe owners, this rate is 60% (p<0.05As a result of this research, it has been seen that the owners of the establishments don?t have enough information about the law. So informing about the law and training should be considered seriously; and supervision must be done strictly. Even if the law weren?t seen to lead to economic losses in the other countries, money support must be provided when a problem is faced in our country.Key Words: Tobacco, legal regulations, ban, work place, attitudes