The impact of smokers on employee health

It is estimated that about one in five people either smoke or have smoked in their lifetime.Although this number is significantly less than the nearly 1 in 2 people who had smoked during the 50s and 60s, there are still a huge number of smokers out there and the chance is certainly high that you have smokers working for you.Despite a significant drop in the number of people who smoke in the United States over the past four decades, tobacco use continues to kill 440,000 Americans annually. This is a huge number that dwarfs deaths from many of the most common cancers combined.What may be even more frightening is that even if you are not a smoker and are fairly cautious around those who do choose to smoke, secondhand smoke kills an estimated 53,000 persons each year.These figures alone make exposure to secondhand smoke the most dangerous occupational hazard we will expose our employees too.

While it is not our responsibility to make employees stop smoking, it becomes the business owner's responsibility to take action if the impact of smokers is negatively affecting the health of other co-workers.State and federal agencies have seen the need for increased attention and protection to the workers who choose not to smoke and have established laws designed to protect individuals from the dangers of second hand smoke.However, it is the responsibility of the business owner to interpret and apply these legislations in a way that when couple with corporate policy, ensures as best as possible that employees are not negatively impacted by smokers.

Protecting non-smoking employees is really only part of the battle.The real success lies in being able to guide smoking employees through a smoking cessation program so that they can kick the habit completely and no longer pose a smoking health risk to themselves or those around them.Most smoking cessation programs include resources that are made available to the employee that can help them to acquire the motivation to want to quit and then facilitate them in following through with the process of kicking the smoking habit.A good smoking cessation program is often coupled with smoking restriction policies that are designed to protect non-smokers but also to make smoking such an inconvenience that quitting becomes the obvious choice.

There are typically three different kinds of smoking cessation techniques that are available to employers.The first is to restrict smoking to designated areas in or around the workplace.This is a good start for companies who have not previously had smoking restriction policies in place.Be aware that if a significant number of smokers are forced into a small area, the risk to those smokers is going to increase as the concentrated amount of smoke will have a more negative effect on employee health.If this is the case or you find that people are handling not smoking in certain areas well, you may want to move on to establishing smoke-free buildings. Not only are you providing clean air in all indoor work locations, you are also forcing smokers to go outside to smoke.The inconvenience of having to leave one's workstation and completely exit the building may be enough to convince some employees that it is time to quit and to motivate other employees to at least smoke less often.The next step is to ban smoking on the entire premises or campus.Creating a smoke free workplace may not happen overnight but you can use your ability to create smoking policies to gradually train your employees to learn that the company is no longer willing to accommodate this unhealthy aspect of some employee's lives.