Background: India introduced ban on smoking in public places including  restaurants in 2008.  While there is strong support for anti–smoking policies in restaurants the personal behavior practices of  restaurant employees also demands that  they too should  not smoke or use tobacco where food products are handled.

Aims: The current study determines the extent of tobacco use and  its addiction among  restaurant   employees in Mumbai .

Settings and Design:

A community based cross–sectional survey  was conducted among the restaurant workers in Mumbai, India  between  September 2012–January 2013. Representative random sample of 26 restaurants from two randomly  selected administrative wards in Mumbai  was undertaken  through  two  stage sampling.

Methods and Material:

Socio demographic information  of restaurant workers along with  tobacco  use  were collected by pretested questionnaire .Nicotine dependence was measured using the Fagerström Test score.

Statistical analysis :  Bivariate analysis with logistic regression were conducted to assess the presence and strength of  association between the independent variables and tobacco use  status.

Resultsand Conclusions: Total  210 restaurant employees from   26 restaurants  were  surveyed for tobacco use.116(55.2%)  were found to be current tobacco users in some form. Smokeless tobacco  use was predominant  (63.7%)and  nearly  57.8 had  medium to high Fagerstrom addiction score. Regression analysis showed  Illiteracy  (OR=0.5, CI 0.28, 0.96; P=0.03), Religion (OR= 2.57, CI 1.55, 5.77; P=0.022),  Marital status  (OR=0.51, CI 0.26, 1.01; P =0.05  ) were associated with tobacco use after controlling for age.The study findings calls for targeted tobacco prevention and cessation efforts among restaurant workers to supplement  effective antismoking regulation  in place.