Legislation prohibiting smoking in the workplace and public spaces is not related to the increase in prevalence of smoking in private places, according to an article published by Dr. José María Martínez, the head of the UIC Biostatistics Department.
The article was published in the journal Tobacco Control and comes to this conclusion after evaluating the correlation between the application of tobacco-control policies, particularly those that prohibit smoking at work and in public places, and the increasing prevalence of smoking in private in the 27 EU Member States.
Dr. Martínez recently received an Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the Universitat de Barcelona for his doctoral thesis “Exposición al humo ambiental del tabaco y medidas de control del tabaquismo” (Exposure to ambient tobacco smoke and anti-smoking control measures). Martínez's 2010 thesis is a compendium of seven indexed scientific articles that were particularly relevant when they were published because anti-smoking legislation had not come into effect throughout Spain at that time.
