Maintain a comprehensive tobacco-free workplace policy
The tobacco-free policy must apply to the entire workplace – both indoors and outdoors and must apply to all US-based employees, temporary workers, contractors and visitors. Gold Standard employers may not have any designated areas for the use of any form of tobacco.
Sample tobacco-free workplace policy
Sample tobacco-free enforcement language
Forms of tobacco and smokeless tobacco
- Cigarettes, Cigars, Pipes
- Smokeless tobacco, also called chewing tobacco, oral tobacco, spit or spitting tobacco, dip, chew, snuff, snus, twist, plug, and dissolvable tobacco products
- Electronic cigarettes, also called “e-cigarettes,” or “Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems” (ENDS)
Additional Information about E-Cigarettes
We’ve taken a strongstance on e-cigarettes as part of our tobacco-free workplace requirements. Despite the fact that they do not contain tobacco, and therefore the adverse health effects of e-cigarettes are not yet proven (unlike the well-documented adverse health effects of tobacco products), they will explicitly not be permitted at Gold Standard workplaces. E-cigarettes are flavored vaporizing devices that provide nicotine dosing, which means they can lead to nicotine addiction.
Some people argue that e-cigarettes could be effective in helping people stop smoking tobacco products. However, they are not regulated by the FDA, are often produced outside the U.S., and they contain a range of additional substances that are being studied for toxicity for their users and for others nearby. Therefore, e-cigarettes are not proven to be safe as a tobacco-cessation aid.
In addition, e-cigarette manufacturers are aggressively marketing these products, and there is significant concern that e-cigarettes could make smoking overall more socially acceptable as well as serving as an introduction to smoking regular cigarettes.
Finally, because other Electronic Nicotine Delivery Devices (ENDs) are now entering the marketplace as well, all of those devices are also prohibited at Gold Standard workplaces. Other ENDs may not look like electronic cigarettes, but they similarly deliver nicotine into the user.
