title: Smoking policies in manufacturing and assembly workplaces, Wisconsin, 1999.
abstract: Although Wisconsin's clean indoor air law prohibits or restricts smoking in certain areas, it specifically exempts manufacturing and assembly workplaces from its provisions. We conducted a mail survey of 1500 randomly selected employers to determine the nature and extent of smoking policies in Wisconsin's blue-collar workforce. Of the 1042 (70%) respondents, 49% prohibit all smoking; 26% allow smoking only in designated areas; 18% allow smoking in all areas except designated non-smoking areas; and 7% allow smoking anywhere. Larger employers were more likely to have smoking policies. Of the 61% of respondents who indicated having a formal smoking policy, the reasons for having the policy were safety (40%), health (38%), or employee request (12%). For those employers without a smoking policy, the main reasons were that few employees smoke (37%), the decision is left to the employee's discretion (32%), or employees may object to having a policy (10%). About half of the employees in manufacturing and assembly workplaces continue to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.
authors.affiliation: Wisconsin Tobacco Control Program, Madison, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aakko
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schafer
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Gyarmathy
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Narita
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Remington
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014922:Wisconsin; D017132:Workplace