Implementing a Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative in Your Workplace
- Introduction
- Assessing Need and Interest
- Planning a TFC Initiative
- Promoting the Initiative
- Implementing the Initiative
- Evaluating Success
Implementing a Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative in Your Workplace
This toolkit provides guidance for implementing a tobacco-free campus (TFC) initiative that includes a policy and comprehensive cessation services for employees. It is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) experience with implementing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tobacco-Free HHS initiative.
Health Challenge
Worldwide, tobacco use results in nearly 5 million deaths per year. If
current trends continue, it is predicted that tobacco use will cause more
than 10 million deaths annually by the year 2020.1 Cigarette
smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States
and is responsible for an estimated 438,000 deaths per year, or about one
out of every five deaths.2
An American Productivity Audit found that tobacco use was a leading cause of worker lost production time — more than alcohol abuse or family emergencies.6 |
Policies establishing smoke-free environments are the most effective way
to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke. Evidence has shown that
smoke-free policies in enclosed workplace settings are associated with
reduced daily cigarette consumption among employees and possibly with
increased cessation among employees.3
The benefits of smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies that also apply to
outdoor workplace settings have been much less thoroughly researched,
probably because these policies are a relatively new development. One recent
study found that the implementation of a smoke-free campus policy in an
office workplace that already had a smoke-free policy for indoor
settings was associated with an increase in quit rates and a reduction in
daily cigarette consumption among continuing smokers.4
Among adult smokers, 70% report that they want to quit completely,7 and more than 40% try to quit for at least 24 hours each year.8 |
Unlike smoke-free indoor policies, TFC policies are not solely designed
to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke but rather are also intended to
encourage employees to improve their health by quitting the use of tobacco
products. Tobacco-free campuses create work environments in which tobacco
users find it easier to reduce their consumption or quit altogether.5
Establishing a TFC provides employers with an opportunity to
communicate a consistent pro-health message, project a positive image,
and reduce
tobacco-related health care costs.* Providing cessation benefits
(coverage for counseling and medications) in conjunction with the policy
supports the quitting process.
CDC’s TFC Policy Implementation
The vision of a tobacco-free CDC began at the request of CDC Director
Julie Gerberding. In response to Dr. Gerberding’s directive, the Healthier
Worksite Initiative Advisory Committee formed the Tobacco-Free Campus
Working Group, led by the Office on Smoking and Health. This team worked
with Atlanta-area labor unions to implement a two-phase TFC
plan: providing expanded tobacco use cessation services for CDC employees
nationwide through the Office of Health and Safety clinics in phase one and
establishing of completely tobacco-free CDC campuses wherever possible in
phase two.
As a result of this initiative, the HHS Secretary announced in November 2004
that all HHS campuses would be going tobacco-free and that all HHS agencies
would provide tobacco use cessation services to employees as part of the
Tobacco-Free HHS initiative. CDC supported this effort with leadership
and technical expertise. At this time, CDC also implemented the first phase
and began offering free nicotine replacement medications to all interested
federal employees.
In August 2005, CDC completed negotiations with Atlanta-area labor
representatives, thereby enabling all CDC-owned property in the area,
as well as that in other parts of the country not affected by current labor
agreements, to go tobacco-free. CDC was among the first HHS agencies to implement
Tobacco-Free HHS at multiple campuses across the United States.
Toolkit Components
This toolkit describes how others in federal or nonfederal workplaces can plan and implement a TFC policy and evaluate its success. The toolkit describes the following project phases:
- Assessing Need and Interest
- Planning a TFC Initiative
- Promoting the Initiative
- Implementing the Initiative
- Evaluating Success
For non-federal workplaces, consider these guidelines for a
smoke-free workplace if your organization is unable to go tobacco-free.
Executive Order 13058 made all federally-owned, leased, and rented Executive
Branch
facilities smoke-free in 1997. The
2006
Surgeon General’s Report on the Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure
to Tobacco Smoke found that workplace smoking restrictions reduce
secondhand smoke exposure and smoking in the workplace.9
Note: this toolkit is simply an example of what was done at CDC. The examples and
guidance provided should not be a substitute for working with your own
internal policy and legal staff to develop appropriate guidelines and
procedures for implementing a tobacco-free campus policy. Additionally, CDC
and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are in no way
responsible or liable for guaranteeing the success of a tobacco-free campus
policy established as a result of this toolkit.
References
1World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2002:
Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health
Organization, 2002. Available at
http://www.who.int/whr/2002/en/index.html.*
2Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual
smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and
productivity loses — United States, 1997-2001. MMWR 2005;54:625–628.
Available at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5425a1.htm.
3Glasgow RE, Cummings KM, Hyland A. Relationship of worksite
smoking policy changes in employee tobacco use: Findings from COMMIT.
Tobacco Control 1997;6(Suppl 2):S44–S48.
4Osinubi OYO, Sinha S, Rovner E, Perez-Lugo M, Jain NJ, Demissie
K, Goldman M. Efficacy of tobacco dependence treatment in the context of a
“smoke-free grounds” worksite policy: A case study. American Journal of
Industrial Medicine 2004;46:180–187.
5Osinubi OYO, Slade J. Tobacco in the workplace.
Occupational Medicine 2002;17(1):137–158.
6Stewart WF, Ricci JA, Chee E, Morganstein D. Lost productive work
time costs from health conditions in the United States: Results from
the American Productivity Audit. Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine 2003;45(12):1234–1246.
7Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette smoking
among adults — United States, 2000. MMWR 2002;51:642–645. Available
at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5129.pdf. (PDF-993k)
8Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette smoking
among adults — United States, 2004. MMWR 2005;54:1121–1124. Available
at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5444a2.htm.
9U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health
Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the
Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center
for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006. Available at
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2006/index.htm.
Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
Page last updated: May 22, 2007
Content Source: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion