[The opinions of employees about smoking in the workplace]

Smoking is now a serious social problem in Poland and abroad. Unfortunately, adverse effects also affect the businesses in which the crews smoke tobacco. For several years a wide-ranging measures aimed at reducing the population of smoking employees can be observed, unfortunately their results are significantly below expectations. What must be noted is that the effectiveness of these projects to a large extent is determined by the opinion of the smoking part of the crew about the problem of smoking in the workplace. The aim of this work was to analyze the opinions of employees about smoking in the workplace. The selection of study group was expedient. The people tested were permanent employees of a large plant in Rzeszow. The research materials were the answers to the questions given to an anonymous survey. The survey contained 21 questions about their opinions to smokers and 17 questions about their opinions to non-smokers. The perception of risks arising from the smoking of tobacco by smokers and non-smokers was asked for, and their expectations towards the company. They were asked also the willingness to join special programs helping in quitting the addiction of smoking. The individuals who smoke at least one cigarette a day were recognized as daily smokers of tobacco (as defined by WHO). Those who used to smoke every day in the past or occasionally were considered as ex-smokers. (less than one cigarette per day). 4200 surveys were distributed in the plant. The filled - in forms with replies were received from 1412 workers, representing 33.6% of questionnaires distributed. All the surveys were put in order and checked on its merits. 1291 were classified as correct, what represented 30.7% of questionnaires distributed. The latest version of the program Statistica 8.0 was used for the statistical calculations. Test results show that 14.9% of employees smoke tobacco, and every third smoker is worried about the consequences of smoking. As far as opinions on the presence of smoking in the workplace are concerned, most workers believe (94.3%) that the employer should do everything to protect the non-smokers from having to inhale tobacco smoke. Only one in ten believes (11.4%) that talking about the harmfulness of smoking is the attack on the freedom of smokers, and argues that there is a lot of exaggeration in speaking about the harmfulness of smoking. As for the negative effects of smoking the most frequently mentioned are health consequences (36.6%). In a population of smokers 17.9% want to quit smoking very much and one in ten do not consider such possibility. What is comforting, however, is that 48.9% of respondents expressed opinions about joining the pro-health program which goal is to help in quitting smoking. The study shows that the vast majority of staff believes that the employer should protect the non-smokers from inhaling tobacco smoke and help the smoking employees in quitting smoking. More than half of all workers considered that the employer should help the employees to quit smoking addiction. Smokers worry about the health consequences resulting from tobacco smoking. Almost half of respondents expressed their willingness to join a program helping in releasing from the addiction of smoking, but a large group of smokers has not shown such an interest. Age and level of education do not affect the motivation to release from the addiction of smoking among smoking employees.