Eagleton Poll and Other Youth Led Opinion Polls

Early polls indicated New Jerseyans wanted smokefree workplaces and restaurants. A statewide, scientific poll was conducted in March 2000 by the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Center for Public Interest Polling, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Known as the Eagleton Poll, it was conducted for New Jersey GASP and the Essex and Union Communities Against Tobacco (CAT) Coalition. Survey highlights:

• 83% of all New Jerseyans (smokers and nonsmokers) want workplaces to be smokefree.
• 67% want restaurants to be smokefree.
• 74% would want the restaurant to be smokefree if they worked in a restaurant.
• 64% are bothered by smoking in restaurants.
• more than 40% of nonsmokers avoid restaurants because of secondhand smoke, or choose smokefree restaurants.
• 11% of smokers avoid restaurants because of secondhand smoke; 13% of smokers choose smokefree restaurants.

Additional youth led public opinion polls in New Jersey also showed support for smokefree dining:

• Ocean City High School students in the Student Coalition Against Tobacco (SCAT) found that 84% of people they questioned (on the boardwalk in January 2000) supported legislation to require restaurants to be smokefree.
• Par-Troy Girl scouts Senior Troop 188 in Parsippany polled shoppers at a supermarket in February 2000; 79% said they wanted smokefree dining.
• In Runnemede, middle school students in Children Opposed to Smoking Tobacco (COST) surveyed more than 600 people at two locations in 1999. In the first survey, 98% of nonsmokers and 68% of smokers wanted smokefree dining. In the second survey, 96% of nonsmokers and 57% of smokers favored smokefree dining.