Health Education: -tobacco

Another Step in Reducing Smoking?

It has been several years since the Cleveland Clinic and the Weyco Company  banned smoking  on their campuses and for anyone who wanted to work for them.  When each rolled out these directives - pre 2007, they provided smoking cessation support, counseling and medications.  They also test to confirm that the persons are not using tobacco (this gets tricky if a person is using Nicotine Replacement Therapy and I do not know they particular policies for those circumstances but I have ideas on how they might manage). Over the weekend, banning smoking in workers was again in the headlines.  It seems more companies are joining in on the fun.  I wonder what people who are hard core individual rights activists and/or those who are anti GOVERNMENT regulation (often free market and corporation friendly)- what do they think about companies deciding that a behavior is NOT okay. To be clear, as I mentioned in this <a href="http://yourhealtheducator.blogspot.com/2008/07/wellness-weekly.html">old post</a> (under the Weight Watchers heading) I am completely for banning smoking - in fact - making it illegal would tickle me (a former smoker). When the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic was interviewed for NBC Nightly News recently he noted that YES, they were concerned about the health aspect of it and the health insurance aspect of it but even more so now, the financial risk to of having smokers as employees is too great a risk to take.  These "smoker" employees (in general - maybe not YOU an employee that smokes) are more likely to miss work, be present but less productive,  become diseased and disabled,  or to retire early and possibly on company disability insurance and so on.   As I said, several companies are now participating.  Baylor Health and Georgia Power were specifically mentioned in the news cast.  In fact, there are 21 states who have  companies who ban smoking in employees. I know it is banned for new hires for at least one of the county health departments in Florida.  (24 states do have smoker's rights laws, again, according to the news story I heard on NBC - so companies might have trouble in those states).  BTW - several industries have high smoking prevalence in their employees - construction is one, but I believe the USPS is another.   Jobs are  hard to come by these days and as someone interviewed on the news said ,"If I can work for some place as esteemed as the Cleveland Clinic and they want me to quit smoking, Sign ME UP."   I say -Here - Here - or is it hear, hear - because that is a message we need to hear. Not hiring people who smoke or use tobacco may be just as effective a strategy as raising taxes, using warning labels and promoting NRT for improving quit rates and reducing the numbers of persons who die from smoking related lung and heart disease. I believe that you can get to the news story by clicking on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/44749894#44749894">this link</a> - it is pretty interesting.

Another Step in Reducing Smoking?

It has been several years since the Cleveland Clinic and the Weyco Company banned smoking on their campuses and for anyone who wanted to...

7:09 PM

E cig Update

In looking at my little blog list here on the desk, I decided to choose the item that I have the least interest in  - so maybe that is the order for the rest of the week - least to most interesting. When I was working as a tobacco treatment specialist/educator, I followed the news on all things tobacco and nicotine pretty closely.  If you'll recall, I provided an overview of the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the changes that it would impose over the years. The first tier included a change in the advertisement warning labels on smokeless products, the outlaw of flavored cigarettes (except the most popular flavor), the rise in the excise tax and the removal of the word(s) light or low tar from cigarette packs.  The next tier will include the expanded warning label on the cigarette packs - the warning will be larger (50% of pack) and graphic in nature. Hm m- it seems I do still have a little passion for the issue.   At about the same time that this law was passed, July 2009 I believe it was - kiosks and on line websites were advertising and selling electronic cigarettes which were purported to be "safer" and in some cases, "treatments" for nicotine addiction. There were two problems with that. One is that you cannot say that something is safe unless you have proven it to be so _ esp tobacco products (since the FDA took over their regulation) AND if you are calling something a "treatment" then you mean it is a medicine and THAT is a whole other bag of regulation. I wrote about the issue and fell on the side of those that believed the manufacturers were claiming e cigs to be nicotine replacement therapy (medicine), like nicotine patches, without doing the safety and efficacy trials.  The FDA was also of this opinion, but the supreme court sided with the e cigarette makers in saying that it was a tobacco product, not a medicine.  It can still be regulated by the FDA but in the same way as cigarettes and not by the medicine division.  Here is the latest <a href="http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm172906.htm">FDA update.</a> I am disappointed.

E cig Update

In looking at my little blog list here on the desk, I decided to choose the item that I have the least interest in - so maybe that is the o...

7:14 PM

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Another Step in Reducing Smoking?

E cig Update

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