Health foundation offers workshop to help businesses implement smoke-free policies; smokers cost businesses extra $5,800/year

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is offering a workshop to help businesses learn how to implement smoke-free policies in their workplaces Aug. 31 in Louisville.

"More than 70 percent of Kentucky adults and 90 percent of Kentucky businesses support smoke-free, so it's never been easier for Kentucky businesses to adopt workplace policies to protect their employees from the dangers of secondhand smoke," Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a news release.

The 75-minute workshop will be part of the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management conference Aug. 29-31 at the Galt House in Louisville. It will be led by University of Kentucky Associate Professor Melinda Ickes, who is also a faculty associate with the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy. The presentation will be Thursday, Aug. 31 at 10:30 a.m. Click here to register.

"Smoking costs businesses an estimated $5,800 per smoker in extra expenditures each year, including productivity losses and additional health care costs, and puts them at risk for the health consequences for all workers exposed to secondhand smoke," says the release.

The foundation will also offer information about developing and implementing smoke-free workplace policies at its exhibit booth at the conference and on its website afterward.