Alliance for Smoke-Free Workplaces

The Facts about Tobacco Smoke Pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen - just like asbestos, benzene and radon.

Tobacco smoke pollution is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States following smoking and alcohol abuse (Journal of American Medical Association, 1997).

Tobacco smoke pollution contains 4,000 chemical compounds including: ammonia, acetone, arsenic, carbon monoxide, cyanide, formaldehyde, methane, nicotine, tar and toluene (Americans for Nonsmokers Rights, Secondhand Smoke Manual, 1998).

On average, smokers are absent from work 50 percent more often than nonsmokers (ASH, Smoking in the Workplace Costs Employers Money, 1997).

Tobacco smoke pollution includes over 40 substances that are linked to cancer. Many of the compounds in tobacco smoke are released at higher rates in sidestream smoke, the smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, than in mainstream smoke, that which is inhaled by the smoker (EPA, 2002).

A smoking employee costs the employer at least 1,000 dollars per year in excess direct and indirect health care costs, compared with a similar nonsmoking employee (American Lung Association, Smoking Policies in the Workplace, September, 1998).

Approximately 3,000 nonsmokers die a year from lung cancer caused by tobacco smoke pollution. Nonsmokers who breathe this polluted air have a 20 percent greater risk of developing lung cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001).

Tobacco smoke pollution causes 35,000 heart disease deaths in nonsmokers each year (American Lung Association, 2002).

When a workplace is totally smoke-free, the combined effect of smokers who quit and those who smoke less make for a 29 percent reduction in cigarette use (British Medical Journal, Vol. 325: 188-194).