Occupational disparities in smoke-free workplace policies in Arkansas

This report summarizes trends in Arkansas to protect workers from the documented harm caused by secondhand smoke. We also examined whether employees comply with smoke-free policies.

While considerable progress has been made to protect workers from secondhand smoke, Arkansas workers report significantly lower rates of smoke-free policies than workers nationally and ranked 46th among the states in this important area of occupational health in 2001-02. Blue-collar and service workers in the state lag significantly behind their white-collar counterparts and men report lower rates of smoke-free policies than women. Once implemented, however, compliance with a smoke-free policy is nearly universal among working Arkansans.