U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the number of states, territories, and DC that prohibit smoking in worksites, restaurants, and bars — TU‑17 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System (STATE), CDC/NCCDPHP

Baseline: 32 states (including DC and some territories) had smoke-free policies that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of worksites, restaurants and bars in 2018

Target: 58 States (including DC and Territories)

Numerator
Number of states, the District of Columbia and territories with policies that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of worksites, restaurants and bars.
Target-setting method
Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
Target-setting method justification
The target was selected to align with the goals for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Tobacco Control Programs, which funds states to focus on guidance outlined in CDC's Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, which used a target-setting method of adopting comprehensive smoke-free policies by 100 percent of the population in all states and territories. This approach is in line with national and international guidance, including recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and World Health Organization.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Newly enacted state tobacco-control legislation is downloaded from Westlaw, an on-line legal database. CDC, Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) searches the Westlaw LEGIS-ALL database for all 50 states, D.C. and Territories enacted bills for the quarter using date restrictions. The bills are coded according to variables identified by CDC, OSH, which include the comprehensiveness of the law, includes smoking areas permitted or required, separately ventilated smoking areas required, and no smoking allowed. In some cases, data on enforcement authority, penalty for violation, and signage required are also collected. Private workplaces are tracked in the STATE system as "private worksites", Restaurants are tracked in the STATE system as "restaurants" and Bars are tracked in the STATE system as "bars". To be counted as prohibiting smoking, states should be coded as "banned" in the STATE system in all three locations. U.S territories tracked in the STATE system are American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives in that it is a composite of objectives TU-13.1, TU-13.3, and TU-13.4, which tracked the number of states and the District of Columbia with policies prohibiting smoking in indoor areas of private worksites (TU-13.1), restaurants (TU-13.3), and bars (TU-13.4). This objective also differs because it tracks the number of states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.