- Title
- Workplace tobacco control: the nexus of public and occupational health
- Creator
- Smith, D. R.
- Relation
- Public Health Vol. 123, Issue 12, p. 817-819
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2009.10.014
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2009
- Description
- Tobacco use represents one of the most important public health issues in the world today. The problem is vast, with over one billion smokers worldwide and many millions more using oral tobacco products. Tobacco kills over 5 million people every year, accounts for 10% of all adult mortality and is a risk factor for 6 of the top 8 causes of death worldwide. If current trends continue, tobacco will be responsible for around 8 million deaths per year, and up to one billion deaths in the 21st century. Tobacco also represents a key issue in occupational health, as it has considerable impact in the workplace. From a health perspective, smoking at work may act multiplicatively to cause significant respiratory disease among occupations with high exposures to mineral dusts and other airborne contaminants. From a financial perspective, employees who smoke incur greater absences from work, take more sick days and have higher health care costs than comparable never smokers. Employers suffer from decreased productivity, higher ventilation and housekeeping costs, as well as fire insurance losses when their employees smoke. Tobacco use at work also harms others and for non-smokers, the workplace represents one of the largest sources of environmental tobacco exposure.
- Subject
- occupational health; public health; tobacco use; workplace control
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/916246
- Identifier
- uon:7927
- Identifier
- ISSN:0033-3506
- Language
- eng
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