Tobacco use Bans Get Mixed Review.

At the end of the day, is it worthwhile to ban tobacco use on the premises at your corporation?

It depends on the steps you take to support workers attempting to kick the habit, finds a recent study .  The Journal of Tobacco Policy and Research found that smokers do, in truth  take more sick days than their non-use of tobacco peers.

And even when the smoker is in relatively good overall health (i.e., isn’t obese, doesn’t have chronic medical conditions), he or she is still likely to have higher healthcare costs than a comparable non-smoker over the last three years.

Precisely how does a use of tobacco ban fit into the cost equation? When the smoker quits, health costs even out.

But when the individuals only refrains from use of tobacco on the job â.” but continues puffing away at home â.” the corporation sees little to no healthcare cost decrease.  The research study  found similar patterns for absenteeism.

Bottom line –  A workplace smoking ban in combo with a smoking cessation program gets results. A smoking ban alone usually doesn’t.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 10th, 2010 at 5:43 am and is filed under Corporate Wellness, Wellness Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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