Passive smoking can be a serious workplace health hazard and is likely to be the subject of litigation in the future.
According to a report in the British Medical Journal, people who have never smoked have a 30 per cent greater risk of developing ischaemic heart disease if they live with a smoker - that's almost half the risk of smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
The report by Dr M.R. Law stated: "The evidence on ischaemic heart disease warrants further action in preventing smoking in public buildings and enclosed working environments." A paper by Prof N.J. Wald also in the British Medical Journal concluded that a woman who had never smoked had a 24 per cent greater risk of lung cancer by living with a smoker.
The study found that tobacco specific carcinogens were found in the blood and urine of non-smokers exposed to smoking and that "all available evidence confirms that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke causes lung cancer".
Last March, the British government-appointed Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health concluded that passive smoking was indeed a factor in the development of lung cancer and ischaemic heart disease in adult non-smokers and that it contributed to respiratory disease, cot death, middle-ear disease and asthmatic attacks in children.
Recent US research has also shown that passive smoking exacerbates and can cause respiratory conditions like asthma in non-smokers.
ASH, the London-based Action on Smoking and Health body, has calculated: "there are at least two million incidences of illnesses caused by passive smoking every year in the UK".
In addition to the conditions above, these include low birth-weight and the induction and exacerbation of bronchitis, pneumonia and nasal cancer. Dr Dan Murphy, director of occupational medical services at the Health and Safety Authority, says even low doses can have an adverse affect on people's health.
The safety authority is particularly concerned about people in the entertainment business and bar staff. A non-smoker bar attendant can inhale approximately the equivalent of two cigarettes a day through passive smoking, says Dr Murphy, and he cites the successful case taken by a semi-professional singer against her employer, a British local authority, following damage to her voice from exposure to smoke in her workplace.
Mr Tony Briscoe, head of health and safety at IBEC, says the employers' body tries to encourage voluntary smoke-free policies in the workplace. IBEC is "fully supportive" of the voluntary code Working Together for Cleaner Air (currently out of print) issued jointly by IBEC, ICTU and the Health Promotion Unit some years ago.
A recent survey of almost 500 companies by the Irish Heart Foundation found that 93 per cent of responding companies had no-smoking policies in place.
Ms Marie Therese Crotty of the heart foundation says that to initiate a workplace no-smoking policy, two things are vital: management commitment and sustained consultation with all staff.
In most companies, "at least 80 per cent of staff will want policies on smoking. The majority of smokers want to quit or cut down. If you have unrestricted access to smoking you'll smoke a lot more," she says.
Companies should set up a committee which "should include a non-smoker, a smoker and an ex-smoker", she says. It should represent all levels within the company and should be followed by an awareness campaign and an employee survey of all employees.
Ms Crotty says the implementation of the policy should take a minimum of 12 weeks: "Let people know you're bringing in the policy in a consultative way, what support services will be available and a date when this is going to take place." Very few companies go totally smoke-free. A room may have to be made available which is adequately ventilated.
The Irish Heart Foundation offers general advice, information sessions, individual advice or counselling and smoking-cessation courses. If your firm is thinking of starting a no-smoking policy, the Irish Heart Foundation's guide Going Smoke Free is recommended. For a copy, phone 01 6685001. .
