Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on June 9, 2005
Health Education Research 2006 21(1):26-33; doi:10.1093/her/cyh038
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Employee's perceived exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, passive smoking risk beliefs and attitudes towards smoking: a case study in a university setting
1 School of Health and Social Care, University of Reading, Reading RG6 1HY and Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Thames Valley University, Slough SL1 1YG, UK and 2 Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health and 3 Department of Community Nursing and Maternal and Child Health, University of Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Spain
Correspondence to: M. J. Duaso, School of Health and Social Care, University of Reading, RG6 1HY, UK E-mail: m.j.duaso{at}reading.ac.uk
Despite the growing literature on workplace smoking policies, few studies have focused on the implementation of such policies in university settings. Smoking in the workplace is still very common in many countries, including Spain. While the law is about to change and more non-smoking policies are to be implemented, it is not clear what kind of restrictions Spanish workers would find acceptable. This study investigated perceived exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), passive smoking risks beliefs and attitudes towards smoking at the University of Navarra (Spain). A questionnaire was sent by E-mail to 641 randomly selected employees and a response rate of 70.4% was obtained. The survey results suggest that 27.3% of the university employees were smokers and 26.6% were exposed to ETS on a daily basis. The majority of respondents (81.7%) supported a restrictive non-smoking policy. Acceptance among active smokers was significantly lower (59.2 versus 89.3%). Smoking prohibition with the provision of smoking areas was the most favored option (46.9%). Results suggest that employees are ready to restrict smoking in the university, but there was not enough support for a total ban. Employers considering adopting a ban on smoking should be encouraged to conduct a similar survey to identify potential barriers to policy implementation.