Does the Type of CIA Policy Significantly Affect Bar and Restaurant Employment in Minnesota Cities?

Clean indoor air (CIA) policies that include free-standing bars and restaurants have been adopted by communities to protect employees in all workplaces from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, most notably employees working in restaurants and free-standing bars. However, due to the perception of negative economic effects on alcohol-licensed hospitality businesses, partial CIA policies (those that provide an exemption for free-standing bars) have been proposed as a means to reduce the risk of economic effects of comprehensive CIA policies applied to all worksites. Bar and restaurant employment per capita were used to determine if partial CIA policies produced differential economic effects compared to comprehensive CIA policies. Ten cities in the state of Minnesota were studied from 2003-2006. Economic data were drawn from monthly employment in bars and restaurants, and a pooled time-series was completed to evaluate three types of local CIA policies: Comprehensive, partial, or none beyond the state law. Communities with a comprehensive CIA policy had a decrease of 9 employees per 10,000 residents compared with communities with partial CIA policies (p = 0.10). Communities with any type of CIA policy (partial or comprehensive) had an increase of 3 employees per 10,000 residents compared to communities without any CIA policies (p = 0.36). There were no significant differential economic effects by CIA policy type in Minnesota cities. These findings support the adoption of comprehensive CIA policies to provide all employees protection from environmental tobacco smoke exposure.