Equality for Care Workers
Social care workers are still being exposed to secondhand smoke, according to a new research paper, but vaping could play a role in improving the situation
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by Dave Cross
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Researchers at the Institute for Social Marketing and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, at the University of Stirling, and Trilateral Research Ltd, based in London, have published a research paper in the Annals of Work Exposures and Health journal looking at how social care workers are still being exposed to secondhand smoke. A leading harm reduction expert has commented on how vaping could play a role in improving the situation.
Rachel O'Donnell, Ruaraidh Dobson, and Sean Semple’s paper says that a disparity exists; while many workplaces have moved to become smoke-free zones, workers delivering community-based health and social care in private homes “remain unprotected legally in this setting from second-hand smoke exposure.”
The small-scale study took fourteen adults and invited eleven of them to take part in either an in-depth telephone interview, and three to take part in an online focus group discussion. The subjects included five home-care workers, and five managers based in Lanarkshire, and four local/national policy makers.
The three authors state: “Participants were asked about the extent to which exposure to secondhand smoke is an issue during home visits and possible additional measures that could be put in place to eliminate exposure.”
The team found:
- Participants highlighted the difficulties in balancing the provision of care in a person's own home with the right of workers to be able to breathe clean air and be protected from secondhand smoke.
- Current strategies to reduce staff exposure to secondhand smoke during home visits were often reported as inadequate with secondhand smoke not a hazard considered by managers beyond protecting pregnant staff or those with pre-existing respiratory conditions such as asthma.
- Simple respiratory protective equipment (as used during the COVID-19 pandemic) was rightly identified as being ineffective.
- Methods such as nicotine replacement therapy and e-cigarettes were identified as potential ways to help people who smoke achieve temporary abstinence prior to a home visit.
O'Donnell, Dobson, and Semple concluded: “Implementing appropriate and proportionate measures to protect home-care workers from the harms posed by secondhand smoke should be a priority to help protect the health of this often-overlooked occupational group.”
Louise Ross, ex-head of the Leicester smoking cessation service, commented on Twitter/X: “This is something we were working on back in 2016. Home care workers could be protected from secondhand smoke if patients/clients were asked to use a vape or NRT, instead of smoking, before a home visit. Would benefit client too.”
References:
- "Why should care workers be any different from prison workers?" A qualitative study of second-hand smoke exposure during home-care visits and potential measures to eliminate exposure - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39158007/
Photo Credit:
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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