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Show Survey shows businesses favor smoke-free policies People are an employer's major asset; therefore, the protection of their health is critical to them, their families, their coworkers and to society as a whole. Such is the underlying basis for the development develop-ment of worksite smoking policies. Today, more companies, like individuals in-dividuals are making the decision to stop smoking. Davis County Tobacco Free Representative, Todd Thompson agrees, "There is a definite movement afoot to establish estab-lish safe, smoke free working environments." en-vironments." A recent survey conducted by Thompson indicates that local businesses and merchants are taking tak-ing a rather firm stand against tobacco use in the workplace. The survey measured the strength of worksite policies of more than 200 businesses county wide. Of those responding to the survey, approximately 56 percent of the businesses reported that their worksite was "smoke free." Another 26 percent of businesses indicated that the worksite had designated de-signated smoking-nonsmoking areas and 18 percent reported that no restrictions on tobacco use currently cur-rently existed. Thompson stated that "while most businesses appeared to favor a smoke free working environment, environ-ment, less than one-quarter of those businesses who responded had taken the opportunity to design a formal, written policy that gave real credibility to their "smoke-free" "smoke-free" status. The majority of the businesses are operating with policies poli-cies that are informal and unwritten." As a result of the survey, the Davis County Office of Health Promotions has mailed out a large number of worksite policy packets ; designed to aid businesses in estab- ! lishing strong tobacco policies. 1 Certificates of Achievement are j being mailed to businesses who I have established smoke free worksites. work-sites. Thompson noted that "en- 1 couragement is being given to em- j ployers and-or administrators to j establish a formal, written policy if they have not already done so. ! Such a policy acts as a source of reference for all new employees and serves to protect the business against any legal liabilities imposed by non-compliers of the policy." i Thompson also stated that "such policies can be handwritten or typed. Outside authorization is not required to formalize worksite smoking policies." Thompson believes that many businesses may be hesitant to establish strong smoke free policies poli-cies for fear of offending smokers rights. "The term 'right to smoke' should be avoided" stated Thompson. Thomp-son. "Smoking is a privilege, not a right and when nonsmokers are unwillingly un-willingly exposed to smoke their j concerns must be addressed and accommodated." , Thompson noted that the survey I showed some thought provoking findings. "It was interesting to see that our veterinary clinics and animal hospitals had stronger smoking policies than did our hospitals hos-pitals designed to serve human beings. I am confident that the future fu-ture will bring changes to such situations." V |