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Smoke-free offices spur people to quit

Smokers may not like them but scientists said yesterday that smoke-free work places are more effective than tax increases on cigarettes in encouraging people to cut down or give up the habit.

Taxes would have to rise by 73 percent -- pushing the price of a pack of cigarettes to US$3.05 in the US or ?6.59 (US$10.36) in Britain -- to have the same impact as smoke-free environments, according to research published in The British Medical Journal.

"We found that smoke-free workplaces are associated with a decrease in prevalence of tobacco consumption by nearly four percent, a decrease not due to underlying secular trends in prevalence," said Professor Stanton Glantz of the University of California in San Francisco.

Smoke-free areas, designed to protect non-smokers from the ill effects of tobacco smoke, also substantially reduce tobacco industry sales.

Glantz and Caroline Fichtenberg, who reviewed 26 studies on the effects of smoke-free workplaces, estimate that extending the ban to all work environments would cut tobacco industry revenue by US$1.7 billion in the US each year and ?310 million in Britain.

It would also further cut smoking rates in both countries.

Marsha Williams, of the British anti-smoking group ASH, said the research adds to scientific evidence about the hazards of smoking and proves the importance of limiting smoking environments.

"This study shows workplace restrictions can significantly reduce the number of people who smoke," she said.

"We've had the health arguments but this takes us a step further. It looks at the reality in addition to the health impact."

Glantz found smoke-free environments were also effective in reducing teenage smoking. Scientists have emphasized the importance of stopping young people from taking up the habit as well as getting long-time smokers to quit.

"Teenagers who worked in totally smoke-free work sites were 68 percent as likely to ever smoke than those who worked in less restricted worksites," he said.

Last month, scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France published a review of research on the risks of passive smoking which showed breathing in second-hand smoke causes lung cancer.

Although the amounts of harmful chemicals and gases in tobacco smoke inhaled by passive smokers are not as high as in smokers, they are just as dangerous.

An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes and expose billions more non-smokers to the carcinogenic chemicals, the IARC scientists said.
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