Poll says most chain cafes have smoke, noise problems

The survey of LOHAS, or Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, was conducted between May 25 and June 8 on eight large cafe chains in Taipei, including McCafe, Dante Coffee, IS Coffee, Barista Coffee, Mr. Brown Coffee, Ikari Coffee, Starbucks Coffee and Doutor Coffee. The survey results were released Saturday.

In the survey, whether or not the establishment had banned smoking was the leading indicator in determining whether a healthy dining environment was provided, according to the magazine. The survey shows that of the eight cafe chains, only Starbucks and MaCafe adopted a comprehensive “no-smoking” ban, while Mr. Brown allows smoking in semi-open spaces on its smoking floor separate from its non-smoking customers.

As for Doutor, IS, Ikari and Dante, the survey found that they enclosed a smoking zone in the innermost corners of their shops. Such measures ultimately allow harmful tobacco smoke cover the entire shop, said Han Po-cheng, a professor at Taipei Medical University who was invited to review the investigation.

Noise was also found a problem. A Common Health senior reporter, Hsieh Hsiao-yuan, said that within the cafes music was often found to be too loud to allow customers to talk with each other in a normal voice. At some coffee shops, Hsieh said they measured sound levels at 65-76 decibels. They commented that sound occasionally exceeding 70 decibles is disturbing and unpleasant to humans.

The survey also found that meals in urban coffee shops mostly contain vegetables insufficient for a person’s daily needs.

Regarding environmental protection, only Starbucks and Ikari were found to encourage customers to bring their own cups by providing coffee at a discount.

In general,the poll showed that Starbucks has the best no-smoking spaces, while Mr. Brown has the most comfortable space for customers, and Ikari provides the greatest variety in meals.

All of the investigated cafe chains, excluding Starbucks, were advised to strengthen their measures on environmental protection and energy saving.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email