Worksites:
The Bottom Line
Smoking is hazardous to your company's bottom line affecting such areas as health care costs, lost productivity and absenteeism, maintenance costs and insurance rates.
Some issues that employers should be aware of include:
Legal Considerations
- Legal liability for secondhand smoke exposure
- Tobacco-free workplace policies
- Insurance surcharges
- Employment policies
Health Risks and Costs
- Absenteeism
- Health insurance and life insurance costs and claims
- Workers' compensation payments and occupational health awards
- Accidents and fires (plus related insurance costs)
- Property damage (plus related insurance costs)
- Smoke pollution (increased cleaning and maintenance costs)
- Illness and discomfort among non-smokers exposed to passive smoke
The Cost of Allowing Smoking in the Workplace
(Source: Economic Impacts of Smoke-free Environments, Smoke-Free Environments Law Project)
Allowing smoking in the workplace has a number of hidden - and not so hidden - costs to the employer. Among these costs are higher medical insurance premiums, more workers' compensations claims and lost worker time and productivity due to smoking breaks.
• A student published in the December 2000 issue of Tobacco Control Journal found that "current cigarette smoking accounted for substantial fractions of hospitalizations and lost workdays, particularly among men." The results showed that current smoking was associated with a 60% increase in risk of lost workdays among men and a 15% increase in risk of lost workdays among women.
• According to a recent Conference Board of Canada study, the average smoking employee costs an employer more than $2,400 a year in lost productivity. Smokers call in sick about two more days a year than non-smokers. On average, they cost company drug plans twice as much as non-smokers. It also costs the employers money to create ventilated designated smoking areas for them. But the biggest drain on the bottom line comes from those little cigarette breaks. At the rate of 30 minutes a day, the average smoking employee racks up a whopping 18 days a year in time-outs for smokes.
• A February 2000 survey in Michigan found that the average employee who smokes takes 3 smoking breaks each workdays, averaging 13 minutes for each break. If these employees are paid an average of $13 an hour, Michigan employers spend about $1.7 billion annually on employee smoke breaks, according to the report in the Detroit Free Press.
Worksite-related Statistics
1. In 1998, smoking-attributable health-care expenditures were estimated at $75.5 billion. During 1997--2001, these expenditures plus the productivity losses ($92 billion) exceeded $167 billion per year.
(CDC. Smoking-attributable mortality, morbidity, and economic costs (SAMMEC): adult and maternal and child health software. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2004.)
2. Exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 35,000 heart disease deaths and 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers in the United States every year.
(CDC. Annual smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and productivity losses---United States, 1997--2001. MMWR 2005;54:625--8.)
3. Implementing policies that establish smoke-free environments is the most effective approach to reducing secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers.
(US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing tobacco use: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000.)
4. In addition to protecting both workers and patrons from secondhand smoke exposure, smoke-free workplace policies also are associated with decreased cigarette consumption and possibly with increased cessation rates among workers and members of the general public.
(US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing tobacco use: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000.)
5. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that operation and maintenance costs would be reduced by $4 to $8 billion annually, if smoking were eliminated in most indoor environments.
6. In its 1990 "Smoking Cessation Statistics" Kaiser Permanente Medical Group of Southern California estimated that each smoker costs their employer $4,789 per year.
Hamilton County Research
• Telephone Survey (pdf)
• Focus Groups (pdf)
Copyright 2008, Hamilton County Tobacco-Free Partnership
Funded by Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation
and The Hamilton County General Health District