If you break smokers down by their occupations, the workers who are most likely to smoke are in the food-service industry, says a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Out of all U.S. full-time employees ages 18 to 64, more than 33.6 million (28% of the total) smoked cigarettes in the past month. Yet almost 45% of food-service workers reported smoking cigarettes in that time.
Construction workers and miners are the second-highest group with a rate of 42.9%.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those who work in education, training and library fields are least likely to be smokers; their rate is 12.3%.
The research also shows that younger workers are more likely than older workers to have smoked cigarettes in the past month. Of full-time employees 18 to 24, 40.1% reported using cigarettes. The percentage of workers who smoked in the past month decreases with age: 33.9% of workers ages 26-34; 26.7% of workers ages 35-49; and 20.7% of workers ages 50-64.
The study could make the workplace an ideal place to educate the public on the dangers of smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the USA, says Peter Delany, director of the substance abuse agency's Office of Applied Studies.
"This data really helped point out that the workplace is a really ideal opportunity to assess, address and help people with their smoking," Delany says.
The results may also help policymakers develop anti-smoking efforts, Delany says.
"Working with a computer scientist and trying to get them to stop smoking may not work the same with someone in the food-service industry," he says.
Though the principles are the same, intervention and prevention would be different in a restaurant than in a computer science lab. They have to be adapted to the target population, Delany says.
The survey results may also indicate where money to curb smoking should be spent to be most effective.
"We have scarce resources for improving health," Delany says. "Let's make sure we get the biggest bang for our buck."
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