Wyoming Business Toolkit
A guide to Establishing a Tobacco-Free Workplace

“According to the U.S. Surgeon General, implementing a
tobacco-free workplace policy is one of the best ways to help
tobacco users quit. Tobacco-free workplace policies “have been
shown to decrease daily tobacco consumption and to increase
smoking cessation among smokers.” Making your workplace
tobacco-free is a highly effective way to both help smokers and
chewers cut down or quit their tobacco use and decrease your
health insurance costs at the same time.”

- Brent D. Sherard, M.D., M.P.H., Director and State Health
Officer Wyoming Department of Health

1) US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report to the Surgeon General, 2000.
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr_tobacco_use.htm.

It is no secret – tobacco use has been implicated in cancers of the
lungs, mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas,
uterus, cervix, kidney, bladder, and some forms of leukemia.
Tobacco use causes cardiovascular disease, heart attack, fatal
heart failure, stroke, pulmonary disease, such as sinusitis,
bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, and tracheitis (inflammation
of the trachea).

Spit (Smokeless) Tobacco
The use of smokeless tobacco products is undergoing an alarming
resurgence in the United States. Several national surveys have
reported a higher prevalence of use among those employed in
blue-collar occupations.

Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents
(carcinogens). It is a known cause of human cancer as it
increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity. Oral
health problems strongly associated with smokeless tobacco use
are leukoplakia (a lesion of the soft tissue that consists of a white
patch or plaque that cannot be scraped off) and recession of the
gums.

The health of employees is compromised when biological waste
(spit tobacco mixed with mucous and saliva) is disposed of in an
unsanitary fashion (such as spitting into a cup).

Wyoming adult males use spit tobacco at a rate that is double the
national average, with 14.8 percent chewing.

Smokeless tobacco users are up to 50 times more likely to get
oral cancer than nonusers. One in three patients diagnosed with
oral cancer dies from it.

Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW. This confidential phone call will put
your employees in touch with a cessation counselor to help your
employees quit.

For more information on how to make your workplace a
tobacco-free workplace, call Well-Being of Wyoming
at 472-5991.