Implementation of smoke free policy in restaurant setting - experience of a NGO in Vietnam

• Main Authors: Thi Hoang Anh Pham, Hanh Nguyen Nguyen, Thi Thu Le, Sian Fitzgerald
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Publishing 2018-03-01
• Series: Tobacco Induced Diseases
• Subjects: WCTOH
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/tid/Implementation-of-smoke-free-policy-in-restaurant-setting-experience-of-a-NGO-in,83862,0,2.html

Background and challenges to implementation The Vietnam Tobacco Control Law, effective since May 2013, requires all indoor public places including restaurants and cafeterias be 100% smoke-free. However, GATS 2015 findings showed the highest prevalence and the most modest reduction of second-hand smoke exposure in restaurants during 2010-2015 (80.7% and 84.9% respectively) compared to other settings. The challenges were low political commitment and reluctance of authorities to implement smoke-free policies in restaurants, the resistance of business owners due to concerns about losing profits and competitive edge, and high public acceptability of smoking. Intervention or response In 2015-2016, HealthBridge worked with the Hanoi city and districts´ Health Departments and other partners on “Strengthening implementation of smoke-free restaurants (SFR) in Hanoi”. The project's strategies were: i) Advocacy to add SFR implementation into the Hanoi city action plan; ii) Facilitate the role of local authorities at district level in managing, training, monitoring, and enforcing the implementation of SFR instead of focusing authorities at city level; iii) Peer education to engage managers of compliant SFR to share their experience to create the trust and motivation of restaurant owners; iv) Media campaigns to raise public awareness and support. Results and lessons learnt Managers of 600 restaurants were trained on SFR implementation. 400 of them signed a commitment to be smoke-free. Monitoring visits of authorities at district level was established for the first time and deployed regularly. This proved to be a sustainable enforcement mechanism because of its simple administrative procedure for setting up when compare to interdisciplinary team of authorities at city level. The rate of restaurants going smoke-free increased from 25% to 44% (pre-post intervention survey). The knowledge and support from customers and restaurant owners on SFR policy also increased significantly. Conclusions and key recommendations The project's strategies have proven to be effective in improving the implementation of smoke-free policy in restaurants. These strategies should be scaled up to other areas.