Out of sight, out of mind: workplace smoking bans and the relocation of smoking at work

As the cultural climate toward smoking changes, restrictiveworkplace smoking policies are becoming widely accepted by bothemployers and employees. There is, however, a crucial differencebetween those policies which accommodate reserved areas forsmoking and those which do not. Smokers at work tend to preferthe former especially when the alternative is a total ban. Anevaluation of a smoking ban implemented at a Scottish Universityin October 1997 suggests that the total ban is not only unpopularwith smokers but also among non-smokers who experience unintendedconsequences of the new policy. The greatest complaint fromnon-smokers stems from the relocation of smoking to outsideand particularly around the entrances to University buildings.This relocation has increased environmental pollution for thoseentering and leaving work, presents a poor image to outsidersand visitors, creates unsightly smoking debris and heightensthe risk of fire. Furthermore, employees who smoke outside,in all weathers, have aroused the sympathies of a large numberof their non-smoking colleagues. These unintended consequenceshave prompted many non-smoking staff to favour the reinstatementof reserved smoking areas inside work. In this article we argue,however, that this is not a sensible solution and that theremay indeed be some advantage in increasing the visibility ofsmokers at work. In the short term non-smoking staff becomemore aware of the problems faced by smokers. In the longer term,this raised awareness may have implications for changing organizationalattitudes to the provision of health intervention programmesat the University. Certainly, continuing organizational-basedcessation support might demonstrate, alongside a restrictivesmoking policy, a less punitive and more caring approach tothe promotion of health-related behavioural change at work.