Tobacco Documents Online

! A'PPENDIX : A SLANTED POLL ~ ON SMORINO' LAW During 1984, the Los Angeles.City Council' considered', and eventually enacted, a law to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke ira1private workplacesd. Respected polls taken nati'onwide (Gallup poll; Attachment 1) and in California (Field poll; Attachment 2) show a large majority favoring restricting, or banni'ng_smoking in places of employment. Sharply differing views were presented by a pol1 taken . among Los Angeles voters in April 19'84 for the Tobacco Institute:. The poll showed only 18'$ in favor of the proposedg smoking law (Attachment 3). These results were reported in the Los Angeles Daily News on May 28', 1:984 (Attachment 4). The large discrepancy between the Field and'.Gallup polls on the one hand'and the Tobacoo:Institute:poll on the other may be better understood by examinirng, the wording of specific questions (Attachment 5:),. The poll questions have been constructed to slant the responses against the proposed law. The first question makes it easier to be "opposed" by providi'ngtwoneg,ativeresponses~ responses~and favor"., Although,we do not know if'the questions were rotated duri'ng . - ~ polling, all the negativeresponses were in the later positions in the report. Both negative responses contain arguments against the law, both'gentle ('"... should simply urge ... based on ... ~ . T-6

needs."') and not so gentle ("... because employers and~employees ! : should determine a company's policies, not the government.") The positive response.contains no argument in-favor. The second question, regarding how such laws are enforced, contains only choices which are opposed to smoking laws. The respondent is asked whether the law should be enforced "aggressively"'by police or by lawsuits against employers, orr whether the authoritiew' time or tax dollars would be spent inn enforcement. No positive choices are offered, although experience shows that where smoking laws are in effect, compliance is wi'despread, enforcement involves a city agency and virtually never the police or the courts, and costs are +saia.ll. . Thus, a respondent holding that point of view even in face of the argumentative alternatives of the survey questions could not . record'that opinion, and would,have:to simply fall in the "No: - opinion'llcategory. In summary, the Tobacco Institute poll was not an objective reflection of public opinion but was slanted in opposition to the proposed smoking law.. ,. T-7