Annoyance and Irritation by Second-Hand Smoke in Restaurants and Cafes Lounges in Saudi Arabia

Background: Secondhand smoking (SHS) is the unintentional breathing of tobacco particles because of cigarette smoke exposure. Exposure to SHS can lead to serious health problems such as acute asthma attacks, respiratory infections, and lung cancer, and it is associated with irritating people in public places. This research aims to determine if people sit in indoor restaurants and cafe lounges rather than outdoors because they get annoyed and irritated by secondhand smoke or not. Moreover, this study intends to assess public awareness of SHS and evaluate the awareness of the prohibition policy of smoking in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This research used a descriptive cross-sectional study design. Three questionnaires were used in this research, two of which their approval obtained from the study’s authors and translated back and forth to Arabic, and the third was developed from previous studies and validated by this study author through face validation. The continuous data were presented as median and interquartile range, and categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages and pie and bar charts. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board with IRB number (IRB/1821/23) and informed consent was taken from each participant. Results: A total of 497 participants completed the survey. There was a significant proportion of participants who chose to sit indoors rather than outdoors when they went to cafes and restaurants 35%. Moreover, the majority of the sample stated that secondhand smoke influences their choices to sit indoors or outdoors 62.4%. In addition, there was a large number of people who responded that they changed their places after smelling cigarette smoke outdoors 71.4%. Also, the majority of people were aware of the harmful effects of SHS 75.9%. Conclusions: This study proved that cigarette smoke in public places causes psychological discomfort and health damage at the individual level. Society must take these results into consideration, and smokers must imagine the extent of the harm they cause with second-hand smoke.