There is now unquestionable evidence that tobacco smoke, which is irritating and toxic, polluting and carcinogenic, is a lethal product. It causes diseases. It kills millions of smokers and nonsmokers.

Tobacco smoke moves like a fluid, travelling along air currents. Not only does it spread throughout the spaces where people are smoking; it also invades adjacent areas.

One worker in four is more vulnerable than the others to the health hazards associated with tobacco smoke. Thus, this is the foremost avoidable risk factor for workers in enclosed or covered workplaces. tobacco smoke generates one death out of three in the 25-65 age group. In other words, it kills far more workers than industrial diseases and fatal workplace accidents combined.

The fact that workers should be exposed against their will to tobacco smoke at their workplaces is intolerable. They suffer ill effects and many of them become casualties of "secondhand smoking".

As a safety measure, regulations and orders instituting bans on smoking already exist in some workplaces and in certain public places. No one contests them and they are fully complied with by everyone.

For these reasons, then - to protect workers from tobacco-smoke exposure, as a step towards better hygiene and to create a safe working environment - the European Union of Non-Smokers (EUN) and the French Confederation of Christian Workers (CFTC)

call upon the International Labour Organization to put its official stamp on the "Toxicological data sheet for tobacco smoke".

There are more than 200 toxicological data sheets which describe chemical products that are present in the workplace. Theses sheets indicate the dangers and risks to which workers may be exposed. They specify the health and safety rules to be observed by the company and by the workers.

This data sheet will stipulate a total ban on smoking in workplaces, whether they be enclosed or under cover, private or state owned, and in workplaces open to the public. By extension the ban will apply to all enclosed or covered spaces used for social or group activities. The areas where smokers will be allowed to smoke will be located outside the buildings or inside buildings in specially designated areas, isolated "smoking rooms", equipped with airlocks.

The procedures for the enforcement of this data sheet will be set out in internal regulations. The health and safety inspector will be qualified to verify its implementation.

This data sheet will act as a lever against the recalcitrant employer for the employee exposed to tobacco smoke at his or her place of work. Its enforcement will require the responsibility and vigilance of every employee and every labour and management team.

This document will therefore actually be a:

" Charter for the protection of employees' health and for a fundamental improvement of their working conditions. "

It will in and of itself constitute a new " established right "

The European Union of Non-Smokers and the French Confederation of Christian Workers called upon the International Labour Organization (ILO), on April 22, 1996 in Madrid, during the 14th World Conference on Security and Health at Work, to set up an ad hoc commission in charge of creating this data sheet.

Our two organizations present this toxicological data sheet for consideration by the public and also to political bodies, administrative organizations, and to those involved in the management of places of work.

The EUN and the CFTC call again upon the ILO to do what is necessary - and everything within its power - particularly in respect of the "Philadelphia Charter" of May 10, 1944 and of the international convention on work, number 148 of June 20, 1977 "Convention concerning the Protection of Workers against Occupational Hazards in the Working Environment, Due to Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration", in the workplace, to adopt this toxicological data sheet and enforce it without undue delay.

UEN- CFTC

"TOXICOLOGICAL DATA SHEET FOR TOBACCO SMOKE"

1. DESCRIPTION

A gaseous product of gray-white colour, which is released due to the burning of tobacco, essentially in the form of cigarettes, pipe, and cigar tobacco, tobacco smoke is a toxic, irritating, polluting, and carcinogenic product. It contains more than 4.000 chemical substances, more or less toxic, the main ones being nicotine, which causes dependence, carbon monoxide, irritating substances, and tars.

The dependence phenomenon is linked to the biological properties of nicotine, which, after its absorption, fixes itself on the brain’s receptors and triggers modifications responsible for dependency:

• Physical dependency is related to the lack of nicotine: the subject is obliged to smoke to calm the sensation of need and the nervous phenomena that appear as soon as he or she has been deprived of cigarettes for several hours.
• Psychological dependency is related to the psychoactive effects of nicotine (pleasure, intellectual stimulation, relaxation in stressful situations, antidepressive action, anorexigenic effect, etc.).
• In addition, tobacco smoke smells bad and is dirty.

2. EFFECTS OF BRIEF EXPOSURE

Inhalation:

• Irritation of the throat, larynx, wind-pipe, bronchial tubes, and the capillaries of the pulmonary cells
• Difficulty in breathing
• Coughing
• Headaches Irritation of the eyes, stinging and tears
• Bad breath
• In addition, for nonsmokers forced to inhale the tobacco smoke of others, it is oppressing and stressful.

3.1. For smokers : DEADLY RISK

• Tobacco smoke is a causal factor for more than 30 % of all cancers, either directly in the case of cancers of the larynx, bronchial tubes, mouth, oesophagus, etc., or indirectly as a contributing factor in the case of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, stomach, etc.
• It causes other pulmonary risks : chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, respiratory infections, etc.
• It causes risks for the heart and arteries. It plays a major role in the appearance of lower member arteritis and aggravates the risk of atheroma, coronary thrombosis, and cerebral vascular accidents.
• It reduces fertility. It causes the likelihood of health hazards in the case of pregnancy and breast feeding. In the case of pregnancy, it increases the risk of miscarriages and premature births. New-borns have below-average weight and are more fragile. Tobacco smoking by the expectant mother increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and perinatal mortality by one-third. If the mother breast-feeds her baby, nicotine infiltrates the mother’s milk and hampers the development of the infant.
• Tobacco smoke is a causal factor for premature aging of the skin and negative aesthetic effects. Thinner and dull skin, early wrinkles, stained teeth, and yellowed fingers are all consequences of chronic tobacco smoking. Not to mention problems of taste and smell.
• Of the employees who die before the age of 60 (retirement age in France), 60% die due to their addiction to tobacco or to a malady related to tobacco smoke or alcohol, or both.

3.2. For nonsmokers forced to inhale tobacco smoke: DEADLY RISK

• The tobacco smoke released directly into the atmosphere is much more loaded with toxic products than the smoke inhaled and then exhaled by the smoker. It can be at the cause of immediate problems: eye and nose irritation, coughing, triggering an asthma attack, or an attack of angina pectoris.
• Young children, more sensitive to tobacco smoke, are the first victims. Children of parents who smoke suffer much more frequently from respiratory infections than other children. Noted among these children are increased ear, nose and throat, and bronchial problems, as well as asthma.
• For adult passive smokers, this tobacco smoke increases the risk of lung cancer and recent studies show a clear relation between passive tobacco smoking and cardiovascular disease.
• Tobacco smoke constitutes a major risk or even a risk of death for certain passive smokers who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke. There is about one death of a passive smoker, victim of the tobacco habits of others, for every 100 active smoker deaths.

for people with respiratory handicaps, heart disease, asthma, and pregnant women present in the workplace where smoking is allowed. For these people, who constitute at least one-fourth of all employees, banning smoking in closed or covered workplaces is an absolute necessity.

N.B. How can the "working world" still ignore these handicapped persons?

N.B.	AGGRESSION: Tobacco smoke constitutes a continuous form of aggression towards nonsmoking employees in workplaces where smoking is allowed.

4. FIRE AND EXPLOSION

Cigarettes are responsible for numerous fires and other damage. It is to limit these risks that strict regulations formally forbid smoking in certain establishments: in the oil industry, in the explosives industry, the wood industry, in factories manufacturing numerous products such as textiles, on assembly lines, in mines, service stations, submarines, department stores, museums, libraries, cinemas, theatres, food shops, kitchens, etc.

The rules of these professions are perfectly well accepted and followed, without question.

5. VENTILATION

In closed or covered areas where employees work, the air must be renewed in a manner that preserves sufficient purity of the atmosphere to preserve the health of the employees and prevent unpleasant odours. This regulatory measure should determine all by itself, ipso facto, the banning of smoking. These measures are applicable in air conditioned buildings in which air intakes favour the diffusion of the smoke generated by tobacco smokers.

6. INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PROTECTION

61. EUROPEAN CODE AGAINST CANCER:

" Do not smoke. Smokers, stop as quickly as possible and do not smoke in the presence of others ".

6.2. THE CHARTER AGAINST TOBACCO, WHO, Madrid, November 1988:

" Every worker has the right to breathe air in the workplace that is unpolluted by tobacco smoke ".

6.3. EUROPE AGAINST CANCER - EUROPEAN UNION / DG V.

" Europe Against Cancer "
Programme, High Level Cancer Experts Committee, Consensus Conference on tobacco, Helsinki, 2 October 1996:
Recommendations on tobacco:

• " The lowest level attainable of tobacco smoke is the zero. "
• " the Cancer Experts Committee recommends that smoking be banned in public places and in the workplace. "

Either the authorities authorize smoking, and they thereby forbid clean air, or they want clean air, and they therefore ban smoking

6.5. FUNDAMENTAL RULE

A total ban on smoking in the places of social and collective life, workplaces, covered or enclosed, public or private, where the public is admitted.

6.6.

• No ashtrays in enclosed or covered spaces, public or private, to which the public is admitted. Ashtrays shall be installed outside and at the entry to such buildings.
• In no case may so-called private offices be classified as rooms in which smoking is authorized. This is because in reality the private office does not truly exist. The occupant of a so-called "private" office is regularly visited by colleagues or other people. For this reason it is equipped with several chairs for them to sit on. Speaking of a "private" office is therefore misleading. In addition, authorizing the employees of a company to smoke because they work in an individual office imposes an element of social inequality that is incompatible with the fundamental rule of equal treatment for all.
• Smokers are given two possibilities: either to smoke in smoking rooms, if such rooms are made available for their use, which must not communicate directly with enclosed or covered rooms in which employees work. They must be enclosed and independent, equipped with airlocks and smoke extractors. Or to smoke outdoors, if no such rooms exist.
• The tobacco aggression to which nonsmokers are subjected by inveterate smokers must cease.

7. REGULATIONS

• In application of the legal procedures proper to each country, it would be desirable for the measures regarding the ban on smoking in companies to be inscribed in labour legislation. They should also be inscribed in the internal bylaws of these companies.
• In health, educational, youth-related, and sports professions, smoking by these professionals inside the facilities where they exercise their activities should be considered as professional misconduct.
• The rules concerning the ban on smoking inside such facilities and the sanctions to which violators expose themselves, including dismissal in the case of repeat offenders, shall be included in the employment contracts for these professions.
• For nonsmokers: demand enforcement of the rules concerning the ban on smoking in places where social and collective activities take place.
• For nonsmokers forced to inhale the smoke of others, it will be possible to present the toxicological sheet for tobacco smoke to people in positions of responsibility who do not implement bans on smoking.
• Nonsmokers exposed to tobacco smoke can demand to be subjected to tests revealing such exposure, including urinalysis, saliva analysis, blood tests, and tests on their hair.
• Prolonged exposure of nonsmokers to tobacco smoke in the workplace can lead, in case of illness, to the initiation of a procedure for requesting the recognition of an occupational injury.

• In companies, the company manager assumes de jure the overall responsibility for applying nonsmoking rules, but others in managerial positions and supervisors are authorized to intervene in this respect.
• The reception and security personnel are empowered to remind people who seem not to be familiar with them of the nonsmoking rules that are in force.
• The company doctor must ensure the correct application of the nonsmoking rules within the company, and is empowered to take such action as may be necessary if these rules are not enforced.
• Both labour and management must be vigilant as to the correct application of nonsmoking rules, notably as a function of the responsibilities that they assume in company works councils, local works councils, and of course in Safety, Hygiene, and Working Conditions Committees.
• The occupational health and safety agency has the duty of overseeing the correct application of the nonsmoking rules in companies and shall take any necessary enforcement action.
• The police forces shall have the task of intervening within publicly owned companies and public organizations, as necessary, to enforce nonsmoking rules.

• Education in protection against tobacco smoke must be included in all professional training courses in the context of health and safety instruction. It must take place in labour organizations, in the framework of health and safety training courses, notably those financed by social security.
• Nonsmoking rules must be signalled by prominent signs, sufficiently numerous, comparable to those posted to indicate obligations and restrictions of a health or safety nature.
• Information on the nonsmoking rules must be distributed by other means, as necessary.

• The medical and scientific community has available thousands of studies, theses, and scientific papers that thoroughly condemn tobacco smoke, a toxic element of industrial origin, the world’s leading predator of human health, whether of smokers or nonsmoking passive smokers.
• Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization.
• Declaration of Philadelphia. General Conference of the International Labour Organization, May 10, 1944.
• International Labour Organization Convention no. 148 of June 21, 1977: N.B. This convention defined air pollution as being "any air contaminated by substances that are harmful to health or dangerous for other reasons, whatever their physical state."
• IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Humans - Tobacco Smoking - Volume 38 - IARC - WHO - Lyon, France, 1986.
• Environmental Carcinogens. Methods of Analysis and Exposure Measurement - Volume 9 - Passive Smoking - 1987 IARC - WHO Lyon.
• "It Can be Done: A Smoke-Free Europe." Report of the First European Conference on Tobacco Policy. Madrid, November 7-11, 1988. "Proclamation of the Anti-Tobacco Charter." WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• European Directives: Law no. 91-114 of December 31, 1991 (France), modifying the Labour Law and the Public Health Laws to favor the prevention of professional risks and bearing transposition of the European Directives concerning on-the-job health and safety.
• "The Interactionof Smoking and Workplace Hazards - Risks to Health," p. 51-55, K. Rothwell, 1992, WHO, Geneva.
• "Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders," 1992, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, USA.
• The Stensund (Sweden) Appeal of August 6, 1995 of the European Union of Nonsmokers (EUN).
• STOP: "The Stensund Appeal," Special Edition of January 1996 of the EUN Bulletin.
• International Framework Convention for the Fight Against Tobacco Smoking, WHA49 17 of May 25, 1996, 49th WHO Meeting

Acetone (Paint Stripper), Ammonia (Floor Cleaner), Arsenic (White Ant Poison), Benzopyrene (carcinogenic), Butane (lighter fuel), Cadmium (used in car batteries, carcinogenic), Carbon Monoxide, (Poisonous gas in car exhausts), DDT (Insecticide), Dibenzacridine (carcinogenic), Dimethylnitrosamine, Hydrogen Cyanide (Poison used in gas chambers),

Naphtalene, (Mothballs), Naphthylamine (carcinogenic), Nicotine (Insecticide, Weed-killer, Drug), Methanol (Rocket fuel), Phenol, Polonium - 210 (carcinogenic), Pyrene (carcinogenic), Toluene (Industrial solvent), Toluidine (carcinogenic), Urethane (carcinogenic), Vinyl Chloride (makes PVC, carcinogenic),

We are building a SMOKE FREE Europe!

CONFEDERATION FRANCAISE DES TRAVAILLEURS CHRETIENS
French Confederation of Christian Workers

The CFTC is simply at the service of workers and their families.

The CFTC has the conviction that within companies everyone can be an actor in social justice. It is there to permit each of us to participate in the organization of his or her work. It privileges partnership between people. This other form of trade unionism is the path to a true contract for labour peace.

The CFTC defends a vision of society that emphasizes solidarity. Working conditions, social protection, family policies, solidarity with the disadvantaged in France and abroad, those are the new frontiers of solidarity where the CFTC is now acting.

Building a society where everyone can fit in. It can be done!

CFTC, Stand up for life!

Référence : LINK Internet édition anglaise