KEY POINTS:
The 2004 ban on smoking at virtually all indoor workplaces, including bars, has reduced smoking by more than expected, a researcher says.
Health Sponsorship Council surveys before and after the implementation of the expanded smokefree law found the proportion of pub and bar patrons who reported smoking more while at those places - smokers can still light up if they go outside - had more than halved.
Between 2003 and 2006, the proportion smoking less or not at all had more than tripled.
Even the hospitality industry, which strongly opposed the 2004 ban, is more relaxed about the change.
Hospitality Association chief executive Bruce Robertson said yesterday that on balance the legislation's economic impact on the industry had been neutral.
Patronage was static or had increased at some venues, particularly food premises or others able to provide an outdoor smoking area; but those with no outdoor area and some traditional pubs catering mainly to older male smokers had suffered significantly.
Andrew Waa, one of two researchers whose study of the council data was presented to the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Auckland, said yesterday the reduction in smoking was quite marked.
"It pretty much halved and we were quite stoked with that. It's probably more than we would have expected."
In their paper, he and co-researcher Richard Edwards, of Otago University, said the banning of indoor smoking at most workplaces had reduced "socially cued smoking" and exposure to second-hand smoke, with little or no effect on pub patronage.
Mr Waa said this was because banning indoor smoking at bars helped to break the traditional link between drinking and smoking, making it easier for "social smokers" to give up and for those who had already quit to avoid starting again.
Prevalence has plateaued at around 23 per cent among adults, but continues to decline for 14 to 15-year-olds, with around 9 per cent being daily smokers in 2005.
Dr Nick Wilson, of the Wellington School of Medicine, agreed the council figures could foreshadow further reductions in the adult rate.
He said the decline in smoking by young people might mean they saw it as less attractive than before and not such a desirable trait of adulthood.
Seeing adults smoking on the street outside office buildings "and looking miserable - it's just not as cool or attractive".
The effect of bans on smoking-related diseases is not always clear.
A study from south-west Ireland, presented to a European conference this week, found a 14 per cent fall in the number of people admitted to hospitals suffering heart attacks in the year following the banning of smoking in most enclosed workplaces in March 2004.
Dr Wilson said New Zealand had a reduction of cardiovascular "events" following its 2004 ban, but this was attributed to improved treatment rather than the smoking ban.
"Ireland made a bigger jump. We already had smokefree offices to quite a high degree. In some other countries where it happened all at once it was possibly easier to detect a difference."
Pub Smokers
* 71 per cent of drinkers said they smoked more when they went to the pub in 2003
* 30 per cent said they smoked more at the pub in 2006, after two years of the ban
