Care homes vary on smoking policy
Since the smoking ban was introduced in 2004, staff who work in pubs or public offices have benefited from cleaner air.
However some workplaces are still exempt, including nursing homes, for understandable reasons.
New research by the joint Medical Research Charities Group looked at 20 nursing homes in the Meath/Kildare area and found that individual homes have different policies.
Two nursing homes banned smoking completely, two allowed smoking anywhere indoors and the remainder tended to restrict smoking to a special common room.
The study, conducted by Dublin Institute of Technology and the Tobacco Free Research Institute, measured particle matter in the air in the homes. They also asked staff to wear badges that measured nicotine levels in the environment. Particle levels measured in smoking areas were about eight times higher than in the homes where smoking was completely banned.
Staff in smoking homes were exposed to levels of nicotine around four times higher than were staff in the non-smoking homes.
The results of the study should feed into policies to help minimise the exposure of non-smokers, both staff and residents, to tobacco smoke in nursing homes, commented researcher Prof Pat Goodman from DIT.
Lung cancer cost the lives of 1,006 men and 702 women in 2010. Smoking is the key cause of lung cancer and the number of cases is expected to grow as we see the effect of increasing numbers of women smoking over the past 20 years take hold, the Irish Cancer Society has warned.
Anyone concerned about lung cancer can go to their GP to be, if necessary, referred to a rapid access clinic.
Originally published in
