Factors associated with secondhand smoke exposure among non-smoking employees in the workplace: A cross-sectional study in Qingdao, China

Xiaocen Jia, Rui Wang, Xiaofei Qiu, Yiqing Huang, Yani Wang, Xiaorong Jia, Shanpeng Li, Yibo Wu and Fei Qi

PLOS ONE, 2022, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Objective: This study was conducted to describe secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non-smoking employees in the workplace, and identify factors related to SHS exposure in Qingdao. Methods: The study participants covered key non-smoking places stipulated in the “Qingdao City Smoking Control Regulations,” which included three categories: restaurants, bars, and office buildings. Airborne nicotine concentration in the workplace and saliva cotinine concentration of employees were measured. The questionnaire included employees’ demographic factors, smoke-free measures in the workplace, employers’ tobacco hazard knowledge, and attitudes towards smoke-free policy. Results: A total of 222 non-smoking employees and 46 non-smoking employers were included in the study. The median concentrations of airborne nicotine and salivary cotinine were 0.389 μg/m3 and 0.575 ng/mL, respectively. Educational status, average number of workplace smokers per day, exposure time to SHS in the workplace, and whether smoking and non-smoking areas were divided significantly related to airborne nicotine concentration. Age, educational status, exposure time to SHS in the workplace, tobacco control training and publicity, and whether the employers support the “Qingdao Tobacco Control Regulation” were significantly related to salivary cotinine concentration. Conclusions: Despite the implementation of the “Qingdao Smoking Control Regulations” in 2013, the workplace remains an important location for SHS exposure. Interventions such as raising workers’ awareness of the risks associated with SHS exposure through health education and developing smoking prevention and cessation programs to reduce SHS exposure in the workplace are urgently needed.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263801 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 63801&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0263801

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263801

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().