The butt stops here: companies are taking unprecedented steps in their efforts to purge smoking—and its health effects—from the workplace

Risk & Insurance,  March, 2008  by Barbara Worthington

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When General Dynamics Electric Boat sent a letter from the company's president to each of its employees last August announcing the establishment of the company's tobacco-free workplace policy and the proposed start date, one employee sent the company's leaders a succinct response via e-mail.

It read, "Thank you. You've just established my retirement date." Though a bit startling, the message was the only negative response among the many received from employees, according to Robert Nardone, the Groton, Conn.-based company's vice president of human resources. Most of the employee feedback was overwhelmingly positive, says Nardone, even the responses from employees who smoked. "Some even said 'Thank you. This is going to help me do what I know I need to do anyway,'" he says.

Despite the recognition of serious health consequences linked to cigarette smoking, more than 45 million adults in the United States still use tobacco, according to Seattle-based Free and Clear, a provider of coaching-based treatment services for health plans and employers.

Although the risks of using tobacco are widely known, nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are also at serious risk: Among the more than 400,000 tobacco-related deaths in the United States each year, approximately 53,000 are the result of secondhand- smoke exposure, according to Berkeley, Calif.-based Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. The Society of Actuaries has determined that secondhand smoke costs the U.S. economy about $10 billion a year--$5 billion in estimated medical costs associated with exposure to secondhand smoke and an additional $4.6 billion in lost wages.

If all workplaces were to implement 100 percent smoke-free workplaces, the reduction in heart-attack rates due to exposure to secondhand smoke would save the United States $49 million in direct medical savings within the first year alone, according to the July 1, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Medicine. Over subsequent years, the savings would only increase.

Companies that have already established tobacco-free campuses have found that their policies have, in general, been well received and many employees see them as an impetus to quit using tobacco altogether. A few companies are taking things a step further and banning employees from using tobacco at all--a practice that's aroused some controversy. Regardless of the way a company plans to launch an anti-tobacco campaign, HR leaders caution that the new policies should be rolled out carefully and are best implemented as part of an overall wellness campaign.

Electric Boat's campaign to achieve tobacco-free workplaces at its Groton facility, which includes 7,000 employees, and its Quonset Point, R.I., facility, with 2,000 employees, had different start dates: The policy took effect at Quonset Point on March 1, 2007, while implementation at the Groton facility is set for July 1, 2007. The ban applies to the use of any tobacco products, including chewing tobacco and snuff, on company property. The staggered implementations allow the company additional time to anticipate potential difficulties that might arise at the Groton location, says Nardone. The Groton workforce population, in addition to being twice as large as that at Quonset Point, includes two unionized groups. "We have to work with the unions to come up with a policy that both the company and the union can support," says Nardone.

Although the unions are supportive of the company's wellness goals, they question whether a mandated policy is the best answer, he says.

The letter sent to employees from EB President John R Casey expressed the company's concern for their personal health and well-being. He introduced the tobacco-free initiative as a "critical component" in achieving and maintaining employee health. Additionally, he acknowledged the "significant challenge this policy represents for employees who use tobacco."

Casey offered the services and support of EB's medical staff and wellness team members to help employees comply with the new policy. EB agreed to provide smoking-cessation programs and to share the cost of over-the-counter and prescription medicines such as nicotine patches and gum. The company also offered to provide experts who specialize in quitting smoking to train employees who want to help co-workers quit. "We're trying to be sensitive to [the smokers'] situation because we know it's not an easy thing to kick," says Nardone. "We're doing it in a way that's manageable for them."

Extrapolating data from statewide surveys, the company knew that approximately 25 percent to 28 percent of its employees were smokers, says Nardone--which meant at least 72 percent of them didn't smoke. "We're concerned about their rights, as well," he says.

EB executives view the introduction of the smoke-free workplace as a part of its holistic approach to employee health, which includes its Building Better Health initiative, a program launched in 2001 that offers employees incentives for undergoing physicals and participating in free screenings for cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. "I see this as a logical extension of the integrated health-management program," says Medical Director Dr. Robert R Hurley. "Clearly, the greatest impact you can have on improving health is smoking cessation."