Media release: July 15, 2005
Australian
bar workers are suffering significant respiratory harm from their smoky
workplaces, says new research – and governments tinkering with piecemeal smoke
bans are failing to protect them, say employee and health groups.
Partial
indoor smoke bans in some Australian jurisdictions are “a confusing
shambles” and are “too slow and too half-baked” to provide proper work
safety protection, says the SmokeFree Australia coalition.*
The
study, just published in the Journal of
Occupational and Respiratory Medicine,** sampled non-smoking workers in three workplaces with varying
smoking policies, measuring their nicotine exposure and noting their reported
respiratory and sensory symptoms. The authors concluded that
“exposure is associated with measurable increases in the risk of
respiratory symptoms” (frequent cough and phlegm, sore eyes and throat) and
that air-conditioning could “reduce, but fail to eliminate” such exposure.
The
co-ordinator of the SmokeFree Australia* coalition of hospitality employee and
public health groups, Stafford Sanders - a former pub and club entertainer - says: “In several jurisdictions,
governments appear to be allowing occupational and public health policy to be
dictated by the gambling lobby, in allowing long and complicated loopholes in
workplace smoke bans to drag on.”
SmokeFree Australia has pointed out that such ineffective policies:
perpetuate serious and potentially fatal diseases, especially among bar workers, entertainers and regular patrons; see www.ashaust.org.au/SF’03/health.htm
create massive confusion among proprietors, workers and patrons as to where smoking is allowable;
frustrate the public who want quick and clear-cut total indoor bans;
are inconsistent with the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act, in allowing people with asthma, heart disease and other conditions to be effectively barred from employment and access;
undermine Australia’s actions to meet our obligations under the worldwide tobacco control treaty; and
expose venues to increasing risk of expensive lawsuits by workers harmed by passive smoke.
Says
Stafford Sanders: “Once again we urge all governments to make clear,
evidence-based and community-supported laws and regulations to quickly and
completely ban indoor smoking in all workplaces – such as those of Queensland,
where from mid-2006 smoking will be limited to genuinely outdoor, separate and
unserviced areas.
“Governments
need to show firm leadership, end the confusion and get rid of this serious
health risk.”
**
Wakefield M et al (July 2005), “Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Respiratory
Symptoms Among Casino, Club and Office Workers in Victoria, Australia” Journal
of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 47(7):698-703
Comment:
Stafford Sanders, SmokeFree Australia
ph. (02) 9334-1823 m.
0412-070-194
* SmokeFree Australia coalition
for clean safe workplaces:
Liquor,
Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers’ Union; Musicians’ Union of Australia; Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance; Australian Council of
Trade Unions; Action on Smoking and Health Australia; The Cancer Council
Australia; National Heart Foundation of Australia; Australian Council on Smoking
and Health; Non-Smokers’ Movement of Australia; Australian Medical
Association; Asthma and Allergy Research Institute.