Feature Article

There is a new resource available for Ohio employers with questions about how and why to make their workplaces tobacco-free. The Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, the Ohio Department of Health/Healthy Ohioans, and the American Lung Association of Ohio all collaborated to produce "The Tobacco-Free Workplace Toolkit: Creating a Tobacco-Free Workplace." The Tobacco Public Policy Center also contributed to this project.

The toolkit is available in its entirety on the Ohio Tobacco Foundation's new website.  It contains four different components:

• The Costs of Secondhand Smoke and Tobacco Use;
• How to Adopt Tobacco-Free Policies;
• Helping Employees Quit for Good;
• and A Legal Review on Tobacco-Free Policies.

The hard copy version of the toolkit (available from the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation) also includes additional materials such as Tobacco Public Policy Center's model tobacco-free workplace policy and a checklist to guide employers through the process of creating a tobacco-free workplace. The toolkit is being distributed to large employers throughout Ohio, but it is useful and relevant for businesses of all sizes.

The legal section of the toolkit informs employers that although many parts of the state do not yet have ordinances requiring smoke-free workplaces, employers still have a legal obligation to provide safe working environments for their employees. Businesses that permit smoking in the workplace may be held liable for a variety of secondhand smoke-related claims filed by employees.

The section of the toolkit that deals with business costs summarizes the tremendous financial impact of both employee tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. As the toolkit details, a tobacco-free policy can help reduce healthcare costs, maintenance costs, fire risk, and potential legal liability, all while improving resale values, corporate image, and employee morale. This section of the toolkit will be a valuable resource for advocates as well as employers.

In all, the Tobacco-Free Workplace Toolkit is an extremely useful and accessible guide for businesses interested in improving employee health. If you would like a representative of the Tobacco Public Policy Center to speak to a business group in your area about creating tobacco-free workplaces, please e-mail tobacco@law.capital.edu.