Employers have long been concerned about how smoking affects the workplace in terms of overall health and healthcare costs, the synergistic effects of smoking and workplace exposures, and fire safety. Recently, those concerns have been expanded to include vaping—which, as it turns out, is not really any safer for workers than cigarette smoking. And, just to add a new layer of concern, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a study in January looking at working women who smoke. In addition to all of smoking’s other adverse effects, it can harm the development of unborn children.
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Keep reading to find out what NIOSH learned about the connections between women, the workplace, and cigarettes.
Women in Some Jobs Smoke More
Overall, about one in six women of childbearing age are smokers—and three-quarters of them admitted that they smoke every day. Another 13% were former smokers, some of whom could be at risk of relapsing. Of the women in the survey, 7% were pregnant, and one-half of those women reported smoking every day. This is troubling because when the mother smokes, an unborn child may suffer from poor growth, premature birth, placental complications, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or an increased risk of birth defects. All of these can increase health costs for the mother and the child, and the burden does not fall evenly on all employers because female smokers are not evenly distributed throughout various industries.
According to the NIOSH survey, women working in certain industries and occupations are much more likely to smoke. Industries with the highest prevalence of smoking women included:
- Construction
- Accommodation
- Food services
In these industries, as many as one-third of female workers were current smokers. Women who worked in education or as librarians were the least likely to smoke.
Smoking Cessation
In the industries with the highest rates of smoking female workers, smoking cessation programs can be critical to improving health outcomes for women and their unborn children. In general, smoking cessation programs designed specifically for women have similar outcomes to generic smoking cessation programs. However, there are two specific considerations in respect to women and smoking cessation that can be useful:
- Women are more receptive to smoking cessation programs during pregnancy. Studies have shown that women are more likely to stop any unhealthy behavior, including smoking, during pregnancy. Offering smoking cessation programs and assistance to workers while they are pregnant is more likely to succeed than at other times.
- Women are concerned about smoking cessation and weight gain. A systematic review of smoking cessation programs targeting women found that one gender-specific intervention showed real promise: interventions addressing concerns about weight gain. So, when you’re designing your smoking cessation program for female workers, make sure to provide information and support for that specific concern.
Need to smoke out more resources to help workers give up cigarettes? Safety.BLR.com® can give your program a light.