The Social Construction of the Problem of Second-Hand Smoke Exposure for Bar and Bingo Hall Employees in Newfoundland and Labrador The Social Construction of the Problem of Second-Hand Smoke Exposure for Bar and Bingo Hall Employees in Newfoundland and La

• Main Author: Deborah Quaicoe
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1052.3610; http://www.mun.ca/safetynet/library/OHandS/Quaicoe_Honors_Final_November_2005.pdf

This paper adopts a social constructionist approach to exploring the current controversy related to the proposal to ban second-hand smoke exposure in bars and bingo halls in Newfoundland and Labrador. The construction of second-hand smoke in the workplace as a social problem is taking place at global, national, and provincial scales, with some variation in the timing, nature, and outcomes of this process in different contexts. This variation is one indication of the extent to which this problem is socially constructed, rather than simply the product of awareness of the "truth" about second-hand smoke exposure. A social constructionist approach explores the history of the development of public problems by examining claims and counter-claims, claim-makers, and the claimsmaking process. This research draws on information from the World Wide Web, local print media, and from participation in and review of documents associated with a government public consultation in Newfoundland and Labrador from February 2005. A search of the World Wide Web provides the larger, global context for understanding the problem, and the other two media provide accounts of how social groups in Newfoundland and Labrador have articulated the problem. Research into the social construction of this problem is important in understanding how groups in Newfoundland and Labrador, and elsewhere, have responded to the global problem of second-hand smoke in relation to workplace health and safety.