With Genesee County’s smoking rate 29% higher than the national average, the Greater Flint Health Coalition (GFHC) has developed the Commit to Fit! “Smoke-Free Business Toolkit” to promote smoke-free environments by helping businesses adopt and implement smoke-free policies and workplaces, resulting in reduced smoking prevalence and better health among County residents. The Toolkit is specifically designed for small and medium sized businesses throughout Genesee County and the City of Flint who are interested in creating a healthier, cleaner, and more efficient workplace via adoption of a smoke-free, campus-wide policy.
So why should local businesses be interested? Adoption of a campus-wide smoke-free policy has proven to benefit employers and employees alike by improving employee health, lowering employer costs for workers’ compensation and medical expenditures (annual cost reductions of up to $1,623 per employee per year), and increasing employee productivity and presenteeism. Studies show that policy change, specifically within a workplace setting, significantly impacts behavior, in this case facilitating a decline in smoking: smoke-free policies demonstrate a 3.8% reduction in smoking prevalence, a reduction in secondhand smoke exposure by 72%, and employees who work in organizations with smoke-free policies are twice as likely to stop smoking compared to those who work in organizations without the policy. Furthermore, research has indicated that smokers who take four, 10-minute breaks a day to smoke actually work one month less per year than workers who don’t take smoking breaks.
The GFHC’s Smoke-free Toolkit emphasizes simple steps for businesses to go smoke-free, and includes a variety of tools making it easy for businesses to adopt smoke-free policies in six months or less by following a step-by-step implementation guide and using additional resources such as a written policy template and customizable smoke-free signage that can be provided to interested businesses and organizations.
The Commit to Fit! Smoke-Free Business Policy Toolkit is available free-of-charge to all businesses and organizations in Genesee County, and builds on local initiatives of the Greater Flint Health Coalition including its County Health Rankings Action Plan and Commit to Fit! campaign, all of which are focused on improving health status and health behaviors among all Genesee County residents.
Several local Genesee County businesses have already adopted smoke-free policies with great success. The Smoke-free Toolkit shares testimonials from a number of these local businesses who have gone smoke-free in recent years.
To view the Smoke-Free Business Toolkit, please click here.
For more information about the Greater Flint Health Coalition or to order a Smoke-Free Business Toolkit, call (810) 232-2228, or email gfhc@flint.org.