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Show Man. -sm okers 'rights' prevail In an era where personal "rights" are often in direct conflict with each other, it behooves us to recognize whose rights prevail. In the case of smoking at the worksite, work-site, one adage holds true: One per-son's per-son's rights does end where another's nose begins. Well documented studies have shown second-hand smoke to pose a major health risk. Health hazards aside, second-hand smoke can be a cause of discomfort to a significant number of people. Tobacco smoke commonly affects the eyes, irritates irri-tates nasal passages and can induce coughing and-or headaches. Exposure Expo-sure to smoke-filled environments may also aggravate the symptoms of already existing conditions such as asthma and coronary heart disease. dis-ease. Todd Thompson, a health promotion prom-otion technician with the Davis County Health Department notes that "many people have reservations reserva-tions about openly voicing their complaints about smoking, particularly parti-cularly when the offender is in an administrative position." Thompson noted that "Utah law prohibits discrimination against employees who express concern about smoke pollution at the worksite. work-site. However, an employee who wishes to remain anonymous may contact the Health Department who will then work with the employer em-ployer to create a viable solution." Thompson encourages employees em-ployees and employers to become familiar with the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act. The law mandates that unless an employer has designated desig-nated his-her entire work place as "no smoking," he-she is responsible responsi-ble to designate appropriate smoking smok-ing areas. Appropriate areas do not include restrooms, hallways, elevators, ele-vators, stairwells or other common traffic areas. Accordingly, the law also requires re-quires an employer to take action when an employee requests a separarate work area because of exposure to tobacco smoke. Precedence Prece-dence must be given to the nonsmoking non-smoking employee in attempting to reach agreements between the preferences pre-ferences of smoking and nonsmoking non-smoking employees. Thompson encourages those who have questions in regards to their rights as a non-smoker to contact con-tact the Davis County Health Department, De-partment, 451-3322. |