Objective: We investigated the factors interfering with measures to prevent passive smoking in pharmacies.

Methods: A survey was sent to 500 pharmacists in community pharmacies published in Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Institution Information.

Results/Findings: The questionnaire response rate was 46.0% (230/500 pharmacists). Subjects were 77 pharmacists who worked in completely smoke-free pharmacies. Among the not completely smoke-free pharmacies groups, there were 37 pharmacists who worked in pharmacies with separate areas for smokers and nonsmokers, or with no action plan for smoking cessation. Higher age and personal management of pharmacies were more frequent in the incompletely smoke-free pharmacies group. They were not aggressive in smoking cessation support and lacked understanding of passive smoking.

Conclusion: Pharmacists in pharmacies with inadequate countermeasures for passive smoking were older in age and individual owners.

【Objective】 Whether municipal ordinances prohibiting smoking on the street might act as a motivator to change attitudes and behaviors among smokers who had not quit smoking but rather began smoking on the streets off campus after a total ban on smoking on campus was introduced by our university, was a critical issue. To that end, we examined municipal ordinances in Japan that prohibiting smoking on the street. The goal of the present study was to collect and analyze information cited on municipal websites regarding local ordinances prohibiting smoking on the street in Japan.

【Methods】 Local ordinances governing public smoking were gathered from all the municipal websites in Japan then analyzed with descriptive, parametric and non-parametric statistics in order to clarify the mutual relationships among legislation, bylaw names, aims, exemptive clauses of the smoking ban, intensified restricted areas, and penalties.

【Findings】 Of the 1,741 municipalities in Japan, 107 (6.1%) had enacted ordinances prohibiting smoking on the street. Analysis revealed that ordinances may be categorized into 2 types. One type was characterized by the use of the term “environmental beautification”, and was not aimed at securing the health or safety of residents. Exemptive clauses in this type of smoking ban were conditioned on the use of portable ashtrays. This type of ordinance made up the majority. The other type of ordinance dealt more directly with health.

【Conclusions】 Without nationwide indoor smoking regulations, major type of municipal ordinances aiming for “environmental beautification” may have little effect on changing attitudes and behaviors among smokers, and on providing for the safety and health protection of residents against secondhand smoke.