Smoking in the Workplace-The Louisiana Experience (1989)

ABSTRACT It has been established that smoking in the workplace has many negative consequences. Even sidestream or secondary smoking has been shown to be a costly and unhealthful condition. This article discusses many of the hazards of smoking at work, shows trends toward regulating smoking on a national level, and then identifies patterns of regulation and control in a specific area of the United States. Finally, guidelines for the development of smoking policies for different types of organizations are identified and discussed. Should smoking be allowed to the workplace? This is one of today's hottest controversies in many organizations. In spite of the Surgeon General's warnings and the findings of medical research, approximately three out of every ten adults continue to smoke cigarettes regularly. Smoking at work is of major concern because its effects are so pronounced and so profound. Smokers are known to suffer chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer, and other serious illnesses. Unfortunately, the smoker is not the only person affected by cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking. Also affected is the sidestream or secondary smoker-the person who is near the smoker as he/she lights up, inhales, exhales, and spreads smoke throughout an enclosed work area. The sidestream smoker, in fact, may be affected more than the principal smoker. In a report issued by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), it was stated that an idling cigarette generates as much as four times the toxic agents given off by a cigarette being puffed by a smoker and emits unfiltered toxic agents into the air (1). The cost of having smokers as employees is significant. The most authoritative estimate of the cost effect of having a smoker to the workplace was done by Weis to 1981 (5). Weis estimated that each smoking employee costs his or her employer approximately $4,600 more a year than the nonsmoking worker. This cost figure was calculated by totaling the following items: Employees who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day spend three-and-one-half hours a day on their smoking habit (smoking, lighting a cigarette, holding a cigarette, walking to and from an acceptable place to smoke, and so forth). Twenty percent of that smoking time excludes all other activities (2); that is. all productive activity of an employee completely stops for that period of time. The rights of the smoker, the nonsmoker, and the employer are by no means clear. Some courts have ruled that smokers do not have a constitutional right to smoke wherever they want to do so, nor do nonsmokers have in inalienable right to expect a smoke-free area in which to work (Glasper versus Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, 1976). Workers who labor to areas where smoking is present and suffer physical problems as a result may qualify for disability pay (Brooks versus Trans World Airlines and California Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, 1977). It is also possible that a worker can be discharged for smoking in those states which have the termination-at-will doctrine (2). In at least fifteen states and more than one hundred municipalities, there are laws regulating smoking at work. In a survey performed by the Administrative Management Society to 1987, it was discovered that 42 percent of the organizations sampled had some type of smoking policy. Of the 336 participating organizations, 22 percent regulated smoking to meeting rooms, 20 percent controlled smoking to storage areas, and 19 percent managed smoking to reception areas. Other areas and the percentages of organizations regulating smoking as reported on the survey were: hallways and aisles (18 percent), open office areas (15 percent), cafeterias (14 percent), security areas (10 percent), and all areas (8 percent). Four percent of the respondents in the national survey said they hired only nonsmokers and 24 percent indicated that they had a smoking cessation program to assist their employees to stopping their smoking habit (4). …