Secondhand Smoke in the Workplace

Details

• Personal Author:
  Aliyu M ; Nanda M ; O'Hara H ; Patnaik S ; Tejeda F
• Description:
  Secondhand smoke (SHS) is defined as the smoke inhaled involuntarily by nonsmokers, often also referred to as Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS). SHS is a mixture of side-stream (side stream smoke) smoke and mainstream (main stream smoke) smoke. SHS exposure causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in nonsmoking adults and children, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the various adverse health effects of second hand smoke exposure, focusing on environmental SHS measurement techniques and patterns of SHS exposure through time. A PubMed search was performed using the following keywords: "tobacco smoke", "second hand smoking," health effects," and "smoking laws." Twenty Five articles were used pertaining to secondhand smoking were compared against current knowledge and recommendations for workplace smoking policies. Results from the search revealed that significant adverse health conditions are directly related to second hand smoke exposure, and prevail across different races, ethnicities, and occupational groups. Whereas numerous legislations are currently in place, most aim to separate smokers and nonsmokers. These findings require that Legislation be enacted to uniformly ban smoking from workplaces and provide disincentives for non-compliance. Information about the harmful effects of smoking and smoking-cessation classes should be offered to all workers. Legislation could require designated restricted smoking areas for workplaces as they move towards a complete ban. Ventilation of the smoking area should meet general standards, and the smoking area should have a slight negative pressure to ensure airflow into the area. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Smoke Tobacco Products
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Secondhand Smoke Cigarette Smoke Legislation Occupational Exposure Policy Secondhand Smoke Smoke-free Laws Tobacco Smoke Workplace
• ISSN:
  2159-8800
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 4 ; Tennessee
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  109-121
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066956
• Citation:
  J Healthc Sci Hum 2016 Fall; VI(2):109-121
• Contact Point Address:
  Suvag Patnaik, MD, MPH, Resident, Occupational Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, Occupational and Preventive Medicine Residency, Meharry Medical College, 1005 D.B. Todd Blvd., Nashville, TN 37208
• Email:
  spatnaik@mmc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20080701
• Source Full Name:
  The Journal of Healthcare, Science and the Humanities
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:869f03b3a5fb5cbc2fc60ce92d45a1ae360f8f027944209727eeea1a711ea239cbad517e4b245e53f645c6a7dcbcf1323fc3c7e643845f85616ac366ad67cc24
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230875/cdc_230875_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 842.79 KB ]