Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8, 1520-1533; doi:10.3390/ijerph8051520 OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN 1660-4601 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Article Restaurant and Bar Owners’ Exposure to Secondhand Smoke and Attitudes Regarding Smoking Bans in Five Chinese Cities Ruiling Liu 1,2,*, S. Katharine Hammond 2, Andrew Hyland 3, Mark J. Travers 3, Yan Yang 1, Yi Nan 1, Guoze Feng 1, Qiang Li 4 and Yuan Jiang 1 1 Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Rd, Beijing 100050, China; E-Mails: yangyan8288@hotmail.com (Y.Y.); haversian@sohu.com (Y.N.); fengguoze@hotmail.com (G.F.); jiangyuan88@vip.sina.com (Y.J.) 2 School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, 50 University Hall #7360, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; E-Mail: hammondk@berkeley.edu 3 Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA; E-Mails: andrew.hyland@roswellpark.org (A.H.); mark.travers@roswellpark.org (M.J.T) 4 Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada; E-Mail: qangli33@yahoo.com * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: ruiling_liu@berkeley.edu; Tel.: +1-510-6439048; Fax: +1-510-6429337. Received: 17 March 2011; in revised form: 6 May 2011 / Accepted: 6 May 2011/ Published: 12 May 2011 Abstract: Despite the great progress made towards smoke-free environments, only 9% of countries worldwide mandate smoke-free restaurants and bars. Smoking was generally not regulated in restaurants and bars in China before 2008. This study was designed to examine the public attitudes towards banning smoking in these places in China. A convenience sample of 814 restaurants and bars was selected in five Chinese cities and all owners of these venues were interviewed in person by questionnaire in 2007. Eighty six percent of current nonsmoking subjects had at least one-day exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at work in the past week. Only 51% of subjects knew SHS could cause heart disease. Only 17% and 11% of subjects supported prohibiting smoking completely in restaurants and in bars, respectively, while their support for restricting smoking to designated areas was much higher. Fifty three percent of subjects were willing to prohibit or restrict smoking in their own venues. Of those unwilling to do so, 82% thought smoking