NCI Smoke-free meeting policy

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) adopted a smoke-free meeting policy in January 2007 requiring that all meetings organized or primarily sponsored by NCI be held in a jurisdiction that prohibits smoking within workplaces, including restaurants. The policy acknowledges efforts of jurisdictions that enact smoke-free laws, which protect the public from dangers of secondhand smoke, and provides an environment that encourages supports quitting.

The only way to protect nonsmokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors. The most recent Surgeon General's Report found that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. Nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. In addition to 17 entire states, over 125 jurisdictions met NCI's smoke-free standards as of January 2007.

This presentation will introduce rationale for NCI's policy, challenges faced, outline the framework used for enacting this policy, plans for facilitating easy adoption among staff, as well as the impact of the policy among staff and other agencies, and discuss policy exemptions. Implementation tools will also be presented, particularly the NCI Smoke-free Locator Tool, which utilizes up-to-date legislation information to illustrate jurisdictions that meet NCI's smoke-free standards in an interactive web interface. Data from extensive usability testing of the Smoke-free Locator Tool and Smoke-free Policy dissemination will also be presented.