[Smoking habits: a study of Iaşi school staff]

To asses the frequency of smoking habits among the school staff from Iasi.

An anonymous questionnaire with 21 items was administrated to 675 subjects (165 were male and 510 were female) who had performed periodic chest X-ray control during September 2001. The mean age of the group was 42.5 years.

41.8% of the men never smoked, 17.5% were ex-smokers and 40.6% regular smokers. The same rate in women as follow: 68.8%, 6.6%, 24.5%. The age for beginning smoking in women (18-20 years) was significantly higher than that in men (14-15 years). The highest prevalence of tobacco smoke was found among auxiliary personnel men (47.5%) and teachers women (28.2%) and the lowest among kinder garden teachers men and women (18.2% and 21.3%). Despite of the fact the majority of smokers had knowledge about smoking relationship with chronic bronchitis (85.4%-85.1% men and 85.6% women), lung cancer (87%-89.2% male and 85.6% female) and cardiovascular diseases (84.3%-88.1% men and 82.4% women), 55.2% of all smokers (53.7% male, 56% female) had never tried to quit smoking.

It is obvious that the rules on smoking restriction in Romania schools are needed.