Ban Workplace Smoking

• Around 200,000 workers die each year from exposure to tobacco smoke at work, The World Health Organization (WHO) said.

• Workplace smoking, especially the secondhand smoke, not only causes death, it causes long-term illnesses too. The direct medical costs for employers and schools include:

  * increased absenteeism
  * decreased productivity
  * higher insurance premiums (health, fire)
  * higher cleaning costs
  * increased property damage resulting from tobacco use by smoking employees
  

• Ban workplace smoking, since second-hand smoke clearly kills people (see above), the US Surgeon-General said in report that puts the Bush administration on the side of smoking restrictions.

• In England, smoking costs the National Health Service 1.5 billion pounds a year. Industry costs are estimated to be 5 billion pounds in lost productivity, absenteeism and fire damage.

• In the US, smokers cost $1,700 a year in extra medical bills, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Added together with absenteeism and regular smoke breaks, and the annual cost jumps to $3,400 per worker.

• Banning smoking in the workplace could reduce the incidence of smoking-related illnesses in Europe by between four and 32 percent, according to research presented at the annual conference of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Munich.

• Employers should give staff members help to quit smoking, including information on local stop-smoking services and time off to attend smoking cessation clinics, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the British government public health adviser said (April 2007).

• Employers are now escalating the war on workplace smoking. The new focus is on helping their workers kick the smoking habit, several recently released studies reveal.

• Super deal! Metropolis, Illinois will pay city workers $1,000 each to quit smoking. Random nicotine tests will be administered to catch cheaters. The Illinois state smoking ban went live on January 1, 2008.

• Since the 2007 Ohio smoking ban at most workplaces, many businesses, want smoke-free workers (not just at work).

  * Smokers add $4.4 billion to the Ohio's annual health-care bill.
  * About $4.7 billion a year in lost productivity happens because of smoking, accoding to the Ohio Department of Health.
  * 40 percent of employers offer workers some sort of smoking cessation plan, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.

• Starting in 2008, Tribune Company employees must quit smoking or pay an extra $100 month for health insurance. Smoking cessation programs are now being offered to help employees become smoke-free.

• Starting in 2008, Clarian Health employees who smoke will pay $5 extra each pay-period for insurance copayments (Clarian Health is a Midwestern hospital operator).

• Smoking workers suspended. The Whirlpool Corporation suspended 39 workers at its Evansville, Indiana, plant. The workers lied on their health insurance applications. They said that they were nonsmokers, but each was seen smoking outside the plant.

• Did you know that every dollar that the state of Florida spends on smoking cessation programs yields $1.90 to $5.75 in economic gains for Florida employers, insurers and government? That's according to a study conducted by the Washington Economics Group, Inc. funded by Pfizer, Inc.

• The largest private employer in Central Florida, Westgate Resorts, bans smoking. However, it goes much further, smokers will not be hired and employees who smoke (in their personal lives, not just at work) will be fired.

• Swedish companies pamper their employees hoping to end one of Europe's highest absenteeism rates. This includes programs to help people lose weight and stop smoking as well as free gyms and free breakfasts.

• The Texas Attorney General's office claims stores that sell state lottery tickets and allow smoking may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

• Smokers 'waste 30 minutes a day' at work smoking, according to The Benenden Healthcare Society (UK).

• India will now start to enforce a 2003 law which makes all workplaces in India smoke free.

  Civil servants urged to quit smoking in Brunei and help reduce the deadly habit during the Tobacco Order 2005.

• "About 80 percent of people are nonsmokers, and they prefer to be in a smoke-free environment," Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said.

• Workplace smoking ban supported by the European Union (EU) Parliament (October 2007).

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