Home » Survey: 58% of Louisville residents favor indoor bans of e-cigarettes, hookahs in public places

Survey: 58% of Louisville residents favor indoor bans of e-cigarettes, hookahs in public places

40% oppose indoor bans

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Nov. 11, 2016) — Fifty-eight percent of Louisville residents strongly or somewhat strongly support “efforts to improve indoor air quality by expanding the local Smoke-free ordinance to include e-cigarettes,” according to a survey by the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness.

The survey of 800 residents conducted from Sept.28 to Oct. 28 found that 40 percent strongly or somewhat opposed expanding the ordinance and 1.7 percent neither supported nor opposed.

Local residents were invited by the department to take the survey. Only responses from individuals living inside Jefferson County were counted and, to mitigate against skewing results by special interest groups on both sides of the issue, only the first four comments sent from the same IP address were counted. The department also accepted mail-in and phone comments during the same time period.

“The current smoke-free ordinance prohibits smoking tobacco in indoor public places and worksites, but electronic cigarettes and hookah were not explicitly restricted in 2008 in the ordinance,” said Matt Rhodes, deputy director and head of the department’s Division of Environmental Health. “It was important for us to present what current science and data is available as well as allow the public to express comments.”

More than 500 communities across the country, including 13 in Kentucky, already include e-cigarettes or hookah in their smoke-free laws. Many local businesses, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, sports facilities and entertainment venues in Louisville also currently restrict e-cigarettes and hookah in their own wellness policies.