CHANGES FROM 2000 TO 2001 IN U.S. ADULT ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES REGARDING SMOKING RESTRICTIONS AND CHILD EXPOSURE TO ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE (ETS) Robert C McMillen ¹, Jonathan P Winickoff ², Jonathan D Klein ³ and Michael Weitzman ³. ¹Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS; ²MGH Center for Children and Adolescent Health Policy, MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston, MA; and ³AAP Center for Child Health Research and Strong Children's Research Center, U of Rochester, Rochester, NY.

BACKGROUND: A substantial proportion of homes and automobiles serve as Settings for ETS exposure, and many public settings that children frequent are still not smoke free.

OBJECTIVE: To monitor changes from 2000 to 2001 in adult knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding smoking restrictions and child ETS exposure in multiple public and private settings.

DESIGN/METHODS: Data from random household telephone surveys that were conducted in the summers of 2000 and 2001 were analyzed for changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding tobacco. The samples were weighted by race and gender to be representative of the U.S. population.

RESULTS: Response rates were 1501/1876 (75%) in 2000 and 3002/3566 (84%) in 2001. Several attitudes and practices improved from 2000 to 2001 (p<.05 for each): support for ETS restrictions in shopping malls (71% to 75%), fast food restaurants (77% to 80%), and indoor sporting events (78% to 80%); smoking prohibitions in homes (69% to 74%) and when children are present (84% to 88%). There were no significant changes in support for restrictions in convenience stores (87%), restaurants (61%), or outdoor parks (25%). Adult's knowledge of the harm caused by tobacco was unchanged, with the vast majority of adults recognizing the dangers of exposure to ETS from parental smoking (95%) and exposure to ETS in cars (77%).

CONCLUSIONS: There have been small improvements in adult attitudes and practices regarding children's ETS exposure over the past year. However, there are large numbers of adults in the U.S. who report ignorance of the harmful effects of child ETS exposure and there was no improvement in reported knowledge in this one year period. In contrast, a growing majority of adults favor restrictions on smoking in public settings, suggesting that states and communities have public support for broad public smoking restriction policies.