One in four employees is a passive smoker in Europe, Greece worst in Europe
According to a new study led by Philip Philippides, PhD, of the Imperial College London, which was presented at the ERS International Congress 2017 in Milan, more than a quarter (27.5 per cent) of European indoor workers are exposed to passive smoking, and this rate is on the rise over time. However, in Greece, the percentage of employees exposed to their colleagues’ smoke is more than twice as high (around 60 per cent).
The survey recorded a gradual decrease in the number of people exposed to passive smoking in bars and restaurants in Europe. Improvement is due to new anti-smoking legislation and better implementation of existing regulations. Passive smoking rates averaged 45.1 per cent in bars and 30.2 per cent in 2009, while in 2014 they dropped to 25.1 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively.
But, on the other hand, there is a continuous increase in the number of indoor workers exposed to the smoking of their colleagues. While in 2009 the proportion of workers complaining about passive smoking in workplaces was 23.8 per cent, it had risen to 27.5 per cent in 2014, with an upward trend over the next few years.
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(Photo: Zsuzsanna Kilian/sxc.hu)
