Questionnaire Survey and Environmental Measurements that Led to Smooth Implementation of Smoking Control Measures in Workplaces

Abstract

In order to promote smoking countermeasures in a manufacturing plant, we conducted a questionnaire survey about smoking control measures in workplaces. Twenty nine point five percent of the subjects responded that they were exposed to passive smoking where they worked and that the most common source of passive smoking in the workplace and rest areas was environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) leaking from smoking areas. For smoking control measures, 27.8% of employees preferred a total ban on smoking in the building while 55.2% preferred measures to prevent ETS leakage from smoking areas. Regardless of whether they were smokers or not, 99.2% of respondents believed that passive smoking countermeasures in the workplace were necessary and 88.9% of smokers responded that banning smoking in the building was unavoidable. Based on these results, a total ban on smoking in the building was implemented in those workplaces where it was feasible to do so, smoking areas in the remaining workplaces were upgraded to prevent ETS infiltration, and the effects were evaluated by real-time monitoring of the concentration of suspended particle matter. The questionnaire survey results showed that 79.9% of smokers were interested in smoking cessation, that awareness of the adverse health effects of smoking on the smoker and surrounding non-smokers and the nuisance it caused was significantly lower among smokers compared to non-smokers (p<0.01), and that 65.5% of non-smokers believed that smoking was beneficial to the mental health of smokers, despite the fact that they had no experience of smoking themselves. Reporting these results to the Safety and Health Committee was found to be useful both in ensuring thorough segregation of smoking areas and in supporting smoking cessation programs in places where no previous action had been taken because smoking was viewed as a matter of personal choice. We also believe that provision of accurate information tailored to actual smoking conditions in the workplace is useful in effectively implementing anti-smoking campaigns on the adverse effects of smoking and smoking cessation programs. The implementation of a questionnaire survey and environmental measurements that lead to countermeasures was shown to be effective in establishing designated smoking areas and educational programs for smoking cessation.