Why you should adopt a Smokefree policy?

Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a known human (class A) carcinogen. The immediate effects of inhaling secondhand smoke include eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat and nausea. Secondhand smoke contains five regulated hazardous air pollutants, 47 regulated hazardous wastes, more than 69 known or suspected cancer-causing agents and more than 100 chemical poisons. Secondhand smoke is harmful to human health. Restrictions on smoking in public places and overall smoking prevalence reduction are the key strategies to reduce secondhand smoke exposure. Moves to make public places smokefree will both eliminate the health risks and lead to more people giving up smoking.

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Exposure for just 30 minutes to secondhand smoke has been shown to reduce coronary blood flow. Long-term inhalers of secondhand smoke suffer an increased risk of a range of smoking-related diseases. The Government appointed Scientific Advisory Committee (SCOTH) concluded that secondhand smoke is a cause of lung cancer and ischaemic heart disease in adult non-smokers and a cause of respiratory disease, cot death, middle ear disease and asthma in children.³ The British Medical Association estimates that secondhand smoke causes at least 12,000 premature deaths a year. The dangers of secondhand smoke have also been well publicised by the heads of all the Royal Colleges of Medicine and by the Government’s Chief Medical Officer.

“ All employers should plan to introduce smoke free workplaces”

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 thousand chemicals in gaseous and particulate form. secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke is a mixture of side stream smoke, from the burning tip of the cigarette, and mainstream smoke exhaled by the smoker. Standing in the path of a smoker or their cigarette or being in a room in which there are smokers means being exposed to at least 50 agents known to cause cancer and other chemicals that increase blood pressure, damage the lungs and cause abnormal kidney function.” ⁶

Hazards of secondhand Smoke

For more than a decade, convincing scientific evidence has been available to demonstrate that exposure to SHS both harms health and worsens existing health problems. ⁷

Effects on the Smoker: Smoking related illnesses account for 106,000 deaths per year. 1 in 2 smokers will die as a result of smoking. The most serious killers are heart disease, circulatory problems, cancers and respiratory diseases including asthma and emphysema.⁸

Effects of SHS on the non-smoker: There is now conclusive evidence that SHS causes heart disease, lung cancer, asthma attacks and worsening of existing conditions. The most vulnerable are pregnant women, children, people with existing heart or circulatory problems, people with asthma and respiratory disorders and those in lower socio-economic groups. Therefore, in the event of claims for compensation for health damage (e.g. during pregnancy), employers will be expected by the courts to know of the health effects of exposing employees and others to secondhand smoke and to take reasonable steps to eliminate it. ⁹

Employment problems related to smoking: Smokers take about twice as much sick leave as non-smokers. Nationally about 50 million working days are lost each year as a consequence of smoking. 15% of all fires in industrial premises arise from smoking materials. Cleaning costs are higher in workplaces where smoking is allowed because of increased litter, dirtier walls and damage to furnishings (burns). Insurance costs are higher where smoking is allowed. ¹⁰

Ventilation: Evidence shows that conventional ventilation cannot effectively protect non-smokers from the health effects of secondhand smoke, it simply removes the smell and irritants. Toxic and carcinogenic properties of SHS would need to be removed by tornado strength air changes to be effective. According to ventilation authorities.¹¹ It is impossible to achieve acceptable air quality if there is any smoking, no matter what kind of ventilation system you create. Furthermore ventilation standards are voluntary and designed for comfort, not for safety. Air filtration or air ionising equipment can only remove visible particles; they are not effective in removing invisible and highly toxic gases. Employers must recognise that the ventilation argument is no longer acceptable to protecting people’s health.^12&13