The National Institute for ­Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued a Current Intelligence Bulletin, “Promoting Health and Preventing Disease and Injury Through Workplace Tobacco Policies,” which recommends all workplaces become tobacco-free and that employers offer programs to help employees quit tobacco-­product use. These recommendations include the use of electronic cigarettes.


NIOSH cites the ongoing occupational hazards of secondhand exposure as justification for its recommendation. The report aims to prevent occupation-­related illness and improve the general health of workers who use the products or may be involuntarily exposed to their use.


“This Current Intelligence Bulletin marks a half-century since the first Surgeon General’s Report on the health consequences of smoking,” said NIOSH director John Howard, M.D., in a press release. “While cigarette smoking in the U.S. has declined more than 50 percent among all U.S. adults since then, about 20 percent of all U.S. workers still smoke, and far too many nonsmoking workers are still exposed to secondhand smoke at work.”


This is the first time NIOSH has made any recommendations on e-cigarettes, and its justification for including them in this smoking ban is because of the limited knowledge about their effects on health.


The report contains details about what constitutes a tobacco-free workplace, and it includes recommendations for how employers can establish programs that help employees quit tobacco-product use. NIOSH isn’t requiring compliance, and, on the whole, the recommendations seem to promote worker health through education and awareness.


The full report is available at www.cdc.gov/niosh.