Workplace Hazards

NIOSH Renews Focus on Workplace Tobacco Risk

New NIOSH recommendations are aimed at protecting all workers from the hazardous effects of tobacco products.
By: | May 21, 2015

“A new report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends that all workplaces become tobacco-free and that employers make tobacco cessation programs available to workers,” the federal agency announced. “These latest recommendations, which also encompass the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems — or e-cigarettes — are aimed at protecting workers from the occupational hazards of tobacco and the effects of secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke and emissions from e-cigarettes.”

The recommendation comes despite the fact that the habit has declined more than 50 percent among adults in the past 50 years. Nevertheless, NIOSH said about 20 percent of workers still partake, exposing other workers to secondhand smoke.

Smoking in the workplace can result in traumatic fatalities when combined with an occupational hazard, NIOSH said. In addition to explosions and fires, there are other dangers.

“Heat generated by smoking tobacco in the workplace can transform some workplace chemicals into more toxic chemicals, placing workers who smoke at greater risk of toxicity,” the updated document explained. “Tobacco products can readily become contaminated by toxic workplace chemicals through contact of the tobacco products with unwashed hands or contaminated surfaces and through deposition of airborne contaminants onto the tobacco products. Subsequent use of the contaminated tobacco products, whether at or away from the workplace, can facilitate entry of these toxic agents into the user’s body.”

Among industries, smoking rates vary widely. NIOSH said from 2004 to 2011 smoking prevalence ranged from about 10 percent in education services to more than 30 percent in construction, mining, and accommodation and food services. Among occupations, some 50 percent of construction trades helpers smoked while only about 2 percent of religious workers did.

The information and recommendations are included in a Current Intelligence Bulletin, a technical document NIOSH produced. This document builds on previous recommendations concerning tobacco use at work.

NIOSH recommends that employers “at a minimum, establish and maintain smoke-free workplaces that protect those in workplaces from involuntary, secondhand exposures to tobacco smoke and airborne emissions from e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems.” It states that “Smoke-free zones should encompass: 1) all indoor areas without exceptions (i.e., no indoor smoking areas of any kind, even if separately enclosed and/or ventilated); 2) all areas immediately outside building entrances and air intakes; and 3) all work vehicles. Additionally, ashtrays should be removed from these areas.”

The document is the first to include e-cigarettes. The agency said there is too little data on the safety of exposure to emissions from them.

Nancy Grover is the president of NMG Consulting and the Editor of Workers' Compensation Report, a publication of our parent company, LRP Publications. She can be reached at [email protected].

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