Study: Smoking Bans Increase Drunk Driving

Madison, WI (AHN) - A recent study concluded that there was evidence to consider that smoke bans increase the number of drunk driving incidences.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of South Carolina, drew their findings from investigating recorded highway car accident deaths from 2001 to 2005 that were caused by drivers with blood alcohol over 0.08. The collected data was then compared in relation to cities where smoking bans had been enacted.

The experts, Scott Adams and Chad Cotti, reportedly discovered that there was an increase in the drunk driving accidents in non-smoking cities, as well as the boundary lines that surrounded them.

"Using geographic variation in local and state smoke-free bar laws...we observe an increase in fatal accidents involving alcohol following bans on smoking in bars that is not observed in places without bans," read the study abstract, posted on Science Direct.

According to the researchers, the increase was most probably due to the number of drivers wishing to drink, and smoke. As a result, these drivers yearning to light up get in their vehicles and drive to places where they can have a few cigarettes.

The findings were opposed by members of the Smoke Free Wisconsin, which claimed that a connection between smoking and drunk driving could not be determined as definite and accurate.

"How in the world [would you] figure out where people are traveling unless you are interviewing them?" Fox News quoted the organization's executive director Maureen Busalacchi.

She noted that the drivers allegedly on the road could have been driving to bars for many more reasons other than wanting to have a smoke.

The study was published in an issue of the Journal of Public Economics.