• secondhand smoke
• public policy
• prevention

In 2003, the New Zealand Parliament passed a smokefree law that included the prohibition of smoking inside restaurants and bars/pubs (the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003). A key purpose of the act was ‘to prevent the detrimental effect of other people’s smoking on the health of people in workplaces, or in certain public enclosed areas…’. But despite this purpose, the law still allowed for smoking in so-called ‘open areas’ at hospitality venues. These open areas are often surrounded by walls and partial roofing, and are typically inside the actual architectural footprint of the building (eg, see elsewhere for an example photograph of this problem).1 When smoking occurs in these areas, high levels of air pollution from fine particulates (PM_2.5) has been detected.2 This poses risks to non-smoking patrons in these areas, but also the associated air pollution can drift into adjacent indoor areas via open windows and doors.3 4

The …