Outdoor smoking areas lure young people, new study finds

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Young adults are being drawn into their first puff by outdoor smoking areas in pubs and nightclubs according to a new study.

The Otago University study of 22 people aged between 18 and 25 examined whether and how outdoor bar areas facilitate and normalise young adult smoking.

The results showed they are more likely to experiment with cigarettes and it normalises social smoking.

Professor Janet Hoek said they have already known that there's a link between alcohol and smoking.

"We have quantitative studies documenting associations between alcohol and smoking, we have more general studies, including work we've done, probing how young adults rationalise social smoking when they are drinking, and now these findings analyse how bar environments create spaces that normalise and accept smoking."

Professor Janet Hoek. Photo / Supplied

The study revealed three main themes around the participants' experiences of smoking – smoking as a respite, as a social connector and as a way of managing social judgment.

Most participants said external smoking areas were quieter, less crowded and more relaxed than interior areas, so conversation and connections with others became easier.

"Smoking played important functional roles in fostering these conditions; sharing lighters could initiate new social exchanges, while smoking itself filled awkward silences in conversations and reduced social anxiety by giving people something to do with their hands."

Convenient and accommodating spaces provided shelter and warmth and welcomed smokers into a setting where smoking was expected and accepted, Hoek said.

Some participants, particularly those who considered themselves social smokers, said they would not smoke if the designated area was "ages away" or not comfortable.

Others said they smoked purely because the area was there, describing it as the "sheep effect".

"Smoking is no longer a socially accepted practice so spaces that normalise smoking are inconsistent with smoke-free goals," Hoek said.