Study: More than 30 Million U.S. Workers Lighting Up

About 33.5 million full-time employees ages 18 to 64 reported smoking in the past month, with the highest rates of smoking found in the food-preparation and service-related industries, according to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Researchers studied data collected from 2006 to 2008 on 73,000 full-time workers who participated in SAMHSA’s National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Among the 22 industries represented, workers in food-preparation and serving-related jobs were most likely to smoke: 44.7 percent reporting having smoked in the past month. Construction workers and miners ranked second, with 42.9 percent current smokers. 

The lowest smoking rates were found in the education, training and library fields, with only 12.3 percent of these workers reporting having smoked in the last month.

Among all full-time workers, the 18- to 25-year-old age group had the highest past-month smoking rates. Overall, more full-time employed men reported smoking in the past month than their female counterparts. 

“The study provides important insight and updated information that can be used to assist in the developing or refining smoking-cessation efforts to specific workplace groups,” said Eric Broderick, the acting administrator at SAMHSA.  “The workplace is an ideal location for programs to educate employees about the risks of smoking and programs to promote smoking cessation to reduce risks of illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.”