Company Wellness : Use of tobacco Bans Get Mixed Review.

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

It depends on the steps you take to support staff members attempting to kick the habit, finds a recent research study .  The Journal of Tobacco Policy and Research found that smokers do, truly  take more sick days than their non-smoking coworkers.

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

Just how does a smoking ban fit into the cost equation? When the smoker quits, health costs even out.

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

Bottom line –  A workplace smoking ban in combo with a smoking cessation program gets results. A smoking ban alone generally doesn’t.