Compliance with Smoke-free Law in Hospitality Venues: An Observational Study in Turkey

In 2008, Turkey passed a law banning smoking in all indoor public places, including bars, cafés, and restaurants. Compliance studies in 2012 and 2016 showed that secondhand smoke remained a serious burden for Turkey’s public health. Between 2019 and 2020, the Ministry of Health of Turkey undertook cross-provincial inspections in three cities (Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir) in order to enhance compliance. The findings from this study suggest that, despite cross-provincial inspections in these three cities, compliance with the current smoke-free law remains low.