January 24, 2007

Workplace Health

Smoking on work site forbidden

'Weedless Wednesday' a reminder to quit the habit

PETER KENTER

correspondent

TORONTO

When The Smoke-Free Ontario Act went into effect last May, it provided construction workers with an “out.”

Smoking is now forbidden in enclosed construction vehicles, site trailers, portable toilet enclosures and tents, but considered legally acceptable inside a structure that has no more than two walls and a roof or ceiling, in a partially finished structure without a roof, and in vehicles without cabs, or enclosed only by a cage.

But some employers are taking matters into their own hands, offering unique incentive programs to get workers to give up smoking entirely.

Bob Smith, co-owner of Connecticut-based Smith Craft Real Estate Corporation, offered US$2,500 to any member of his 30-person crew who could give up smoking within six months. Smith made the offer last June and recently paid out US$5,000 to two workers who accepted the challenge.

The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) is also offering high-stakes prizes to smokers who abstain from tobacco for the month of March. Entrants in the Driven to Quit Challenge will be selected in a draw to win a 2007 Acura CSX or a Sony 32” Widescreen LCD HDTV (a non-optional urine test will prove you really did quit).

“We’ve seen a lot of this type of incentive since The Smoke-Free Ontario Act came into force,” says Joanne DiNardo, Tobacco Control Specialist with the Ontario Lung Association. “Inducements like this are a great way to encourage workers to quit smoking and to help construction workers to be more healthy and productive.”

Construction workers who haven’t yet quit may find that the tide is turning against outdoor smoking as well. Anti-smoking advocacy groups, such as the CCS, are attempting to chip away at tobacco’s so-called “final frontier.”

Dr. Roberta Ferrence, a researcher with the CCS and Director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit says research shows that second-hand smoke presents a danger to others, even in the open air.

Just seeing others smoke helps to normalize the activity, she says.

“The more visible smoking is, the more people will see it as a normal activity,” says Dr. Ferrence. “At the end of the day, that attitude needs to change. There’s no doubt that smoking restrictions in public places involve an important shift in social norms.”

"Inducements help construction workers to be more healthy."

Joanne DiNardo

Ontario Lung Association

Research shows that tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable disease, disability and death in Canada, responsible for more than 47,000 deaths per year. Cigarette smoking causes about 30 per cent of cancers in Canada and more than 85 per cent of lung cancers.

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