Smoke free workplace encourages smokers to quit

  Article date: 2002/08/28,Smokeless Environment Healthier For All

When smoking is eliminated in the workplace, non-smokers are not the only ones who breathe easier.

It turns out that a smoke-free workplace also provides the impetus for a surprisingly large percent of these smokers to quit — not just to smoke less.

That’s what surfaced when researchers in the US analyzed more than two dozen studies on the effects of smoke-free workplaces, reported in the British Medical Journal (Vol. 325: 188-194).
Magnitude Of Effect Surprises Researchers

"[I was surprised by] the magnitude of the effect," said co-author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "I did not expect it to be so big."

The analysis found that when a workplace is totally smoke-free:

* Smoking prevalence (the percent of workers who are smokers) drops by about 4%.
* Those who continue to smoke reduce smoking by about three cigarettes each day.
* The combined effect of smokers who quit and those who smoked less made for a reduction of 29% in cigarette use.

The authors said that if the US tried to achieve that kind of reduction in cigarette use among the affected workers through another method — a cigarette tax — the tax would have to be as high as $3 per pack.

Glantz said he hopes the results will influence tobacco control advocates to focus more on clean indoor air.
Smoke-Free Has Twice The Effect Of Smoking Restrictions

In looking at the 26 studies the authors selected, they found that this effect was not as high in so-called, smoke-restricted workplaces, where smoking was allowed in designated rooms.

Workplaces that had restricted smoking, instead of being smoke-free, had only about half the decrease in smoking prevalence and use, according to the studies cited in the article.

"Having smoking lounges substantially blunts the effects of smoke-free workplaces on cigarette consumption," Glantz said. "That’s why the tobacco industry promotes accommodation."
Tobacco Industry Knew It First

Indeed, smoke-free workplaces appear to hurt cigarette sales, and the authors cite studies by the tobacco industry with this finding.

A 1992 internal research project at Phillip Morris, quoted in the article, said, "Milder workplace restrictions, such as smoking only in designated areas, have much less impact on quitting rates [than totally smoke-free workplaces] and very little impact on consumption."

The authors said that 69% of indoor US workers already earn their living in smoke-free environments.

"The marginal effect of the remaining workplaces becoming smoke-free would be 40 million fewer cigarettes smoked per day," the authors said.

Ron Todd, MSEd, director of tobacco control for the American Cancer Society, said protecting non-smokers from involuntary exposure should remain a priority, but all the better if such policies help smokers who want to quit.

"What is most impressive," said Todd, "is that we have documentation that non-smoking policies can help smokers quit.

"However, the primary purpose of smoke-free workplaces is to protect non-smokers from the health hazards of tobacco smoke, and that alone is reason enough to create smoke-free workplaces."

Most smoke-free workplace measures are adopted at the local level, such as with city and town ordinances, Todd said. But a few states, such as California, have enacted statewide restrictions on workplace smoking, he noted.

The US Surgeon General has also said that an added benefit from regulations or clean indoor air may be a reduction in smoking prevalence among workers and the general public, Todd said.

"More importantly," said Todd, "the tobacco companies in internal documents and memos have expressed concern that workplace non-smoking policies would reduce consumption and contribute to smokers quitting."

"I would say we have two good reasons to create smoke-free workplaces," Todd said. "First to protect workers from the harmful effects of tobacco smoke and second to support smokers who are trying to quit."

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