The City of San Diego is the largest city in San Diego County without a comprehensive smokefree outdoor dining policy, leaving residents and employees exposed to second- and thirdhand smoke. A new report from the Policy Research Center for Tobacco and the Environment documents that residents and restaurant professionals surveyed support a comprehensive smokefree policy for the city, and levels of toxic tobacco smoke residue at San Diego restaurants with outdoor smoking sections were more likely to be at levels of concern*. The report also contains a review of best practices for smokefree outdoor dining policies, based on a review of ordinances in San Diego County.
Background
Tobacco smoke residue, also known as “thirdhand smoke,” is the toxic chemical residue that is left behind on surfaces and in porous materials long after smoking occurs. It contains over 25 chemicals listed in California’s Proposition 65, known to cause cancer or reproductive harm. The residue sticks to surfaces, embeds in materials, and gathers in house dust. The chemicals linger for years after smoking stops and can re-emit from contaminated surfaces into the air. In a restaurant setting, this pollution poses health risks to patrons and employees.
Key Findings
Outdoor dining patios represent a gap in protection from second- and thirdhand smoke for restaurant patrons and employees. The City of San Diego currently does not have a comprehensive smokefree outdoor dining policy. Advocacy for smokefree outdoor dining in the city has led to a partial policy in which restaurant patios that are part of the Spaces and Places program must be smokefree, and others may choose to do so voluntarily.
Overall, residents surveyed reported they would avoid eating near smoking and would support a smokefree outdoor dining policy. Results from a survey of 1,793 California residents showed nearly 3 out of 4 would not eat a meal in an outdoor dining area if people in that area were smoking. Out of 275 San Diego residents, 73% would not eat a meal in an outdoor dining area if people in that area were smoking. 78% of those San Diegans surveyed would support a law banning smoking in outdoor dining areas in the City of San Diego, including 53% of San Diegans who use tobacco products.
San Diego restaurant owners and employees interviewed also prefer to eat in smokefree environments, with 88% preferring to eat in outdoor dining patios that were smokefree. There was majority support for a smokefree outdoor dining policy, with 63% supporting a smokefree outdoor dining policy for restaurants in the City of San Diego and 100% agreement that a smokefree outdoor dining policy would not negatively affect restaurants in San Diego, in general. Restaurant professionals interviewed described a variety of benefits and barriers to going smokefree, with a majority of those at restaurants with an outdoor smoking section reporting that they would not be willing or able to implement and enforce a voluntary smokefree patio but would need a city-wide policy to go smokefree. Many also reported that their restaurant would be negatively impacted only in the short term, if at all. Long term, they would expect to return to business as usual, citing how the restaurant industry successfully adapted to indoor smoking bans.
In 2023, thirdhand smoke levels were compared between restaurants with a community reputation of allowing smoking and restaurants that had confirmed smokefree patios. The results from these tests showed that a table tested in each of the restaurant patios with confirmed smoking had 13x higher levels of nicotine on it than those tested in smokefree locations. In 2024, thirdhand smoke levels were compared between restaurants that agreed to allow smoking and vaping when asked over the phone and those that said no. Tobacco smoke residue was detected on patio tables at levels of concern* in 40% of restaurants that banned smoking and 60% of restaurants that allowed smoking.
Smokefree outdoor dining policies in other jurisdictions have done the important work of bridging the gap in protection left by smoking bans and smokefree workplace protections that focus on indoor smoking. Closing this gap in protection by prohibiting smoking in all outdoor dining spaces in the City of San Diego would benefit the health of patrons and employees.
*“Levels of concern” refers to detectable levels of nicotine above background levels expected to be found in a non-smoking environment.