More than 35 percent of construction industry workers use tobacco products—one of the highest rates among industries studied by researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), according to Bloomberg Law. That number compares with 18.1 percent of U.S. working adults in 2012.
Workers' smoking can boost employer costs, which can stem from excess absenteeism, reduced productivity, smoke breaks and higher health care costs; a 2013 study by researchers at Ohio State University showed employers could face more than $5,800 in add costs by employing a smoker compared with a worker who never has smoked.
Employers can try to help employees ditch the habit, including bans, offering counseling to help employees quit, covering smoking cessation medications and providing comprehensive health insurance coverage so employees can access medical services.
Houston-based cement producer CEMEX USA Inc. has 9,000 employees and banned smoking at work three years ago, mandating that workers could not smoke on the property, including in their personal vehicles; the company's employee smoking rate declined from more than 14 percent to less than 10 percent during those three years.
Shelley MacAllister, a senior product manager at the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas, says the group worked with a construction company to send tailored messages encouraging tobacco cessation in employees' native languages to their homes, which was effective because workers' families were able to get involved.
According to a recent NIOSH study, workers more likely to smoke included temporary workers; employees at companies with fewer than 50 workers; and those reporting work-life imbalance, job insecurity, unsafe workplaces, demanding conditions and lack of support from bosses. More than 76 percent of construction workers said their workplaces offered no health promotion activities, and many construction workers lack health insurance benefits.
Regarding the U.S. as a whole, years of discouraging Americans from smoking has shown positive results.
"We've made considerable progress in terms of reducing cigarette smoking in this country," says Brian King, deputy director for research translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health. "It's been a comprehensive public health accomplishment over many decades, but disparities persist, and if we want to get down to zero, it's going to be critically important to address the populations with the greatest burdens of exposure."
