The Smoke Free Workplace Act Loophole Doesn’t Protect ALL Vermont Workers from Secondhand Smoke

Vermont led the nation when it passed its Smoke Free Workplace Act in 1987 and made most indoor worksites smoke free. Yet there is a loophole that allows smoking at Vermont workplaces. In the 21 years since its passage, twenty-three states passed laws that protect the health and safety of ALL workers by requiring 100% smoke-free workplaces. Vermont’s law is now outdated. We need to remove the few exemptions in our first-in-the-nation law to protect ALL workers by ensuring that ALL indoor areas of ALL worksites are smoke free.

Smoke-free laws save lives and money. A November 2008 study found nearly 600 fewer Massachusetts residents have died from heart attacks each year since legislators banned smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces. That’s a 30% decrease in heart attack deaths!

Problem with Vermont’s law:

The Smoke Free Workplace Act (18 V.S.A. § 1421 - 1428) requires all employers to have a smoking policy. The policy must prohibit smoking throughout the workplace or restrict smoking to designated enclosed areas that employees are not required to visit on a regular basis. In addition, smoking may be allowed in an unenclosed area “if the layout of the workplace is such that smoking will not be a physical irritation to any nonsmoking employee...and 3/4 of the employees…agree.”

Only those employers that regularly employ at least ten employees who work more than 15 hours per week are required to post a written policy.

A separate law, the Clean Indoor Air Act of 1993 (18 V.S.A. § 1741 - 1746) was amended in 2005 to remove the cabaret exemption and protect workers at bars, cabarets and private clubs from secondhand smoke in the workplace. Now we need to extend protection from secondhand smoke exposure to ALL workers and afford ALL workers the right to breathe clean air at work.

Adverse Impact of Vermont’s Law:

• Vermont’s law allows nonsmoking employees to be exposed to secondhand smoke, as smoking can be located in an indoor place that employees may be required to frequent, albeit not on a “regular” basis.

• The law potentially pits employees against each other as they must vote on whether to permit smoking in an unenclosed work space. Employees may feel coerced to agree to such a designation.

• The law does not specify who decides whether an unenclosed smoking area will be an “irritation to any nonsmoking employee.”

• Employees of small employers may not know their rights under this law since there is no requirement for a posted notice for employers with fewer than ten employees.

• No employee, smoker or nonsmoker, should be exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace.

• The Vermont Department of Health continues to receive secondhand smoke exposure complaints about various businesses.

Why Smoke Free Workplaces?
• Everyone deserves the right to breathe smoke free air. The purpose of passing a smoke free law is to fully protect employees, residents and visitors from dangerous exposure to secondhand smoke.

• Philip Morris agrees. “… people should be able to avoid being around secondhand smoke, particularly in places where they must go.” Philip Morris USA, Boston Globe, Nov.12, 2008

• 100% smoke free workplace policies are the only effective way to eliminate secondhand smoke in the workplace.

• Prohibiting smoking in the workplace helps smokers who want to quit be successful.
o 10-20% of smokers quit as a result of smoke free legislation in their workplace.
o Many of Vermont’s hospitals have voluntarily chosen to go smoke free and are starting to see healthier employees.
 Medical Staff Coordinator Shannon Collins decided to quit when North Country Hospital in Newport went smoke free in January 2007. Shannon says she looked at this as an opportunity to show others they could quit. She took advantage of the support group offered by the hospital, used prescription anti-smoking medication and has been a non-smoker for 1 ½ years after 20 years of smoking.
 Donna Manfredi of Rutland Regional Hospital had worked at quitting smoking since 2002 – not an easy task for a 36 year 2 1/2 pack a day smoker. But it wasn’t until the hospital went smoke free in January 2008 that she was successful. She told herself, “If I can go all day, then I can do it later too. It’s the best thing I ever did.”

• There is no ventilation system that will prevent secondhand smoke from permeating nonsmoking areas. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers has determined there is no technology that can completely eliminate all the carcinogenic components in secondhand smoke.

• Separately ventilated smoking rooms offer no protection for employees who work in those rooms and may even exacerbate their situation by concentrating all the smoking in one place. Even if no employee is required to work in a separately ventilated smoking room, the people who clean the room will be exposed to secondhand smoke.

Health Consequences of Secondhand Smoke:

• A 2006 U.S. Surgeon General’s report stated there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS)
• SHS is the third leading cause of preventable death, killing 53,000 nonsmokers annually
• Just thirty minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke can cause heart damage similar to that of habitual smokers
• Even a short time in a smoky room can cause your blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels and reduce heart rate variability
• SHS is a known carcinogen and contains more than 50 chemicals that can cause cancer
• Nonsmokers regularly exposed to SHS suffer death or morbidity rates 30% higher than those of unexposed nonsmokers
• Regular exposure to SHS heightens one’s chances of stroke by 50%

Click here for the Smokefree Briefing Book 2009

Click here to learn about the current Smokefree Workpace Law and its adverse
impact on Vermonters

Click here to learn about tobacco's impact on businesses