Tobacco Updates for Restaurants

It has been almost a year and a half since Colorado became the 13th state to adopt a comprehensive Smokefree Law. The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act helps protect the health of restaurant and bar workers and patrons by eliminating secondhand smoke exposure in nearly all workplaces of Colorado. In January the law will also extend to casinos. Secondhand smoke, like first hand smoke, contains over 4,000 toxic chemicals and can cause cancer and other ailments even to non-smokers.

If your restaurant needs signage about no smoking and not smoking within 15-feet of an entryway, you can get them free in English and Spanish at www.steppitems.com. Also, as a reminder, it is part of the health inspection report that no smoking or tobacco use should be occurring in the kitchen area of any restaurant and employees should always wash their hands after returning from a smoking or any other break.

As part of employee wellness activities at restaurants, tobacco use should be addressed along with exercise, healthy eating and proper rest. Quitting or not using tobacco is the single most important thing a person can do to maintain and improve health. Employees who do not use tobacco are more productive, take fewer and shorter breaks, are not sick as often and demonstrate better hygiene.

Encourage employees to call the Colorado Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW to receive free nicotine patches and coaching on how to quit. Tobacco users are about eight times as likely to quit with the patch and individualized counseling (like the quitline) as they would by doing it on their own (cold turkey). The Great American Smoke Out on November 15 is a great way to talk to your employees about quitting for a day and for life. For more information about tobacco issues in Weld County, please call the Weld County Tobacco Program at (970) 304-6470 or visit www.tobaccofreeweld.com.