FORT WALTON BEACH, FLA. – On average, employees spend a third of their waking hours at work. While their job influences who they interact with and what tasks they do, the workplace itself can also have a large impact on health behavior. The workplace offers you many opportunities to promote your employees’ health, foster a healthy work environment and improve your bottom line in the process.^1,2 As more employees return to brick-and-mortar offices, now is a great time to implement a tobacco free policy or strengthen your current policy.

Tobacco use in the workplace remains a threat that directly impacts employee health and results in decreased productivity and increased workplace maintenance costs. While we have made great progress in tobacco control, about 20 percent of our nation’s workforce continues to smoke.³ According to the CDC, smoking is still the largest cause of preventable disease, disability and death.⁴ Furthermore, the Surgeon General has found that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke which is an occupational carcinogen.⁵ Researchers have found that “employers acquire $156 billion dollars in cost every year in lost productivity that is related to smoking” and that they spend on average $6,000 more every year for each employee who smokes.⁶

Let us help you protect your employees and your bottom line. Whether you own a small business or a large organization, everyone benefits when worksites go tobacco free, including smokers. Employees become healthier, and healthier workers are more productive and have lower health care costs. We currently have over 30 participating worksites in Okaloosa County! If your worksite is interested in going tobacco free or wants to learn more, please contact Anamaria Penagos at tobaccofreeokaloosa@flhealth.gov. You can also fill out the SurveyMonkey interest form by clicking here.

About the Florida Department of Health

The Department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @HealthyFla. For more information about the Florida Department of Health, please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov

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¹ Tobacco Use: Turning Workplace Challenges into Opportunities | CDC Foundation. (2016, October 26). Cdcfoundation.org. https://www.cdcfoundation.org/blog-entry/businesspulse-tobacco-use

² Workplace Health Model. (2019). Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/model/index.html

³Tobacco Use: Turning Workplace Challenges into Opportunities | CDC Foundation. (2016, October 26). Cdcfoundation.org. https://www.cdcfoundation.org/blog-entry/businesspulse-tobacco-use

⁴Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). CDC - Fact Sheet - Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults in the United States - Smoking & Tobacco Use. Smoking and Tobacco Use. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm

⁵U.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, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006.

⁶Berman M.; Crane, R.; Seiber, E.;Munur, M. “Estimating the Cost of a Smoking Employee.” Tobacco Control. June 2013. http://ucanr.edu/sites/tobaccofree/files/175136.pdf.