Corporate Wellness Blog

At the end of the day, is it worthwhile to ban use of tobacco on the premises at your company?

It depends on the steps you take to support workforce attempting to kick the habit, finds a recent published study .  The Journal of Tobacco Policy and Research found that smokers do, indeed  take more sick days than their non-tobacco use coworkers.

And even when the smoker is in relatively good overall health (i.e., isn’t obese, does not have chronic medical conditions), he or she is still likely to have higher health care costs than a comparable non-smoker over the last three years.

Just how does a tobacco use ban fit into the cost equation? If the smoker quits, healthcare costs even out.

But when the person only refrains from tobacco use on the job – but continues puffing away at home – the business sees little to no medical cost decrease.  The study  found similar patterns for absenteeism.

Bottom line –  A worksite tobacco use ban in combo with a tobacco use cessation program gets results. A tobacco use ban alone ordinarily doesn’t.