Employees working in a business that allows other employees or customers to smoke are at risk of ongoing and, over time, substantial health effects. These employees may be in low wage jobs that do not include health insurance. Those will either go untreated or their treatment is likely to become a public expense. Insured non-smoking employees in businesses that allow smoking can drive up group insurance rates due to frequent and sometimes expensive treatment.

Did you know?

• Restaurant employees are exposed to the highest levels of secondhand smoke of any occupational or demographic group.
• Restaurant employees involuntary inhale enough secondhand smoke every day to suffer some of the identical health effects observed in pack-a-day smokers.
• Waitresses die at higher rates from lung and heart disease than any other female occupational group.
• ASHRAE has declared that there is no way to effectively remove secondhand smoke  from air. This means that those air cleaners don’t currently get the job done effectively. ASHRAE’s guidelines say that the only way to provide clean air to to prevent smoking in the first place. (ASHRAE is the American Society for Heating and Refrigeration Engineers. They set standards that often become indoor air policy across the country.)

The issue is Health : We need to protect workers and take a stand against their exposure to secondhand smoke.