Posted By Steve Cartwright I know this has been discussed before, but I have been asked by my manager to find out what other companies are doing to encourage their employees to stop smoking. Before you smokers get on your high horses, the company I work for provides designated smoking areas, which are enclosed, have heaters in them, tables, chairs and even extraction units in them. However with the government proposing to ban smoking in enclosed areas in the next couple of years, rather than shove them out in the cold under a shelter, we would like to help our employees and if that means helping them to quit smoking then so be it. What I would like to know is what are other companies doing to assist their work force in quitting smoking? Many thanks in advance Steve Cartwright

Posted By Robert S Woods I used to work with a mens health team in West Yorks',. We would arrange smoking cesation classes in workplaces free of charge. Yo'd be amazed how popular they are. Good PR for the company and the local health care trust. Thre's bound to be saimilar provision in your area. Bob

Posted By H Klinkenberg Steve A good starting point for helping employees to stop smoking is to find out why they are smoking. I was working with a client employer recently who ran into problems because the smokers claimed that they were smoking to reduce their stress. The job had a reasonably high stress risk as identified by the stress risk assessments we had just completed so we could not remove this personal stress reduction measure without adding a company wide replacement stress risk minisation measure. We orgaised a number of stress risk minimisation initiatives but to deal with the smoking issue we organised half day pressure management workshops for all staff. We also offered 5 free sessions with a registered local clinical hypnotherapist recommended by a local doctor. We announced at the start of the program that all on-site smoking would stop three months after the start of this program. There were a few complaints but the process worked and on-site smoking ceased on time without incident.

Posted By Rob T What about the people who don't want to give up smoking? Why is it that some of you can't actually get it into your heads that the majority smokers actually enjoy their habit! And as for talking about stress - you've never seen stress like when someone is being "encouraged" to give up smoking against their will but I suppose that kind of stress doesn't count does it? "If it's bad for you, I'm an H&S person and therefore I know best!" llocksbo (that's Welsh!)

Posted By Jim Walker Why is it that smokers seem to think they have a ligitimate reason (fag breaks) for not working? I reckon every smoker ought to do an extra 30 mins per day to make up the difference. And don't get me started on them polluting my clothes & hair (such that it is).

Posted By Mark Talbot Rob, I can almost hear "Air on a G String" now... [music buffs, I don't *care* what the real name is]. Having given up smoking some years back, started again, and given up again I can claim to know a little too. All the best.