Tobacco use causes employees to miss work more often due to sickness, and makes them more expensive to insure. Each year, smoking deaths cost businesses $97 billion nationwide.The Surgeon General has said that smoke-free workplace policies are the only way to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure at work. Separating smokers from non-smokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating a building cannot prevent exposure if there are still people smoking inside the building. Workplace smoking restrictions, which are legal, can also encourage smokers to smoke less, or even quit.
Tobacco free workplace policies not only protect workers from the health dangers of secondhand smoke, but they result in a more efficient work environment. Using the Worksite Tobacco Policy Index to provide technical assistance to worksites and for pre-post assessment of policies, we can identify strengths and weaknesses in existing worksite tobacco policies and identify steps needed to strengthen policies.
The QuitLogix program allows healthcare, professional, and community-based organizations to refer nicotine users to the PA Free Quitline for expert, evidence-based, and confidential coaching to become tobacco-free.
Your organization can participate in the QuitLogix program by completing the online form below during brief interventions with tobacco users. In addition to completing the referral forms provided below, additional training on this initiative and brief tobacco intervention is available to you and your staff upon request.
eReferral's allow healthcare providers to send secure, two-way communication between a provider and the Quitline through the patient's electronic health record (EHR). This system improves accuracy of patient referrals to the Quitline and increases the likelihood of a successful referral, while integrating tobacco cessation into routine clinical care.
The Southwest PA Wellness Partners Coalition is a multi-county effort created to address the diverse issue of tobacco use in the southwestern health district of Pennsylvania.