Smokers less efficient: study

Smokers who say a quick ciggie helps them to work more efficiently cannot hide behind that smokescreen any more - a study shows they take more time off for sickness and are less productive than their non-smoking colleagues.

The study, which covered 300 booking clerks at a large United States airline, covered 100 smokers - those puffing on an average of 15 cigarettes a day - 100 former smokers and 100 who had never smoked.

Smokers called in sick an average of four days over a three-month period, with former smokers calling in sick 2.4 times and people who had never smoked calling in sick 1.3 days.

Productivity was increased and sick days down among workers who had quit, according to Dr Michael Halpern, one of the four Washington DC authors of the report.

The staff also completed a questionnaire that assessed their view of their productivity, as well as how productive they thought their supervisors and co-workers would rate them.

The investigators also assessed more objective levels of work rate - such as the number of reservations made and the amount of time the agent was off the air between calls.

The findings are published in the September issue of the journal Tobacco Control.

"The longer a person had quit smoking, the greater the reduction in sick days," said Dr Halpern, of Charles River Associates.

Though an analysis of objective productivity measures showed no significant differences among the three groups, "trends were observed indicating greater productivity among former versus current smokers, and increased productivity with time since smoking cessation", said the report.

Dr Halpern pointed out that when participants were asked how they thought other co-workers or supervisors would judge their work rate, "former smokers came out higher than did current smokers."

He noted that the study gave employers impetus to help to finance stop-smoking programmes: "Promoting smoking cessation among workers would lead to a healthier and more efficient workplace."

Smokers in the study were defined as those who had smoked on average 15 cigarettes or more a day during the previous year, and who had not quit for longer than three months during the previous year.

Former smokers included anyone who had quit smoking, and "never smokers" were people who had never smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

The study was paid for by GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical company which makes the anti-smoking drug Zyban.

- REUTERS