Smoking: the doctor, a key player in a company "non-smoking"

The occupational physician is a key partner in the approach taken by companies who wish to be applied ban smoking on their premises, and must as such be involved at both the individual and collective level.

An ideology for smoking employees!

Director of TEST-Basse-Normandie program, Dr. Beatrice Master, tobaccologist in Caen, speaking at the press conference organized by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare to present its website * Business Assistance seeking information and receive advice to enforce the Evin law on banning smoking in workplaces.

The specialist recalled on this occasion the main mission of the occupational physician, which is to avoid the deterioration of the health of workers due to their working conditions, in which fits perfectly with the implementation of "No Tobacco" in business.

Tobacco smoke, with some 4,000 chemicals, has been classified as "major carcinogenic workplaces" by the International Labour Office (ILO). The occupational physician must therefore educate staff about the dangers of smoking (active and passive) and the benefits of stopping, continued Dr. Master.

This awareness is as much of a personal nature, during medical visits that collective order, the organization of information days staff and visits to workplaces.

If "a business without tobacco is not a business without smoking, but a company where no one is exposed to tobacco smoke and where we take care of the health of employees," the incentive to stop Tobacco is one of the tasks of the occupational physician.

"The occupational physician is not only to protect employees from passive smoking, but also to help smokers to engage employees more rapidly approach a stop," said the smoking addiction.

For his part, "the entrepreneur's interest to help employees stop smoking," if only for the direct and indirect costs that they have on the company. According to an American study, the smoking ban within the company can reduce absenteeism up to 23%, reduce the duration of sick leaves and make it more attractive.

So with the help of the occupational physician must initiate a business process to become "smoke-free". This process includes several steps, including personal information and helps stop the process. The physician can advise smokers to use NRT, the cost can be borne wholly or in part by the company.

5-6000 deaths per year

Passive smoking causes 5-6000 deaths per year, has recalled its Emmanuelle Béguinot, Director of the NCTC (National Committee for the Fight against smoking) side. Exposure to cigarette smoke leads to risks similar to those faced by smokers cardiovascular disease, increases the risk of respiratory diseases and aggravates breast cancer in premenopausal women.

"It is therefore not just a problem of nuisance, but a health issue."

In the European context, where many countries have committed against smoking in public places, and with a French population clearly supports this approach, "the ban on smoking in public places appears to be inevitable," said Director the NCTC, which while cautioning against "fake good" ideas are smokers exceptions and effective differential envisaged in bars and nightclubs.

"We want simple, providing protection for people everywhere," she concluded.