.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} When Les Wiley heard last fall that his employer, GuideOne Insurance, planned to establish a companywide tobacco-free campus policy, he was upset.

“I thought it was a bunch of crap,” said Wiley, a nearly 30-year employee of the West Des Moines insurer. “It didn’t make sense. I kind of felt like it was intruding on my supposed freedom; it was my choice, it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business.”

Nevertheless, when GuideOne implemented the policy on May 1, Wiley was among about a dozen employees who had managed to kick the habit. A pack-a-day smoker who started when he was 14, he had tried several times to quit. Not being able to smoke during work hours, or even in his car in the company parking lot, was the best incentive he ever had to stop, he said.

“I didn’t want to have to figure out where I was going to smoke, and I didn’t want to get in trouble for smoking at work,” said Wiley. He quit smoking on Nov. 9, a week before he began serving on an employee task force to establish the tobacco-free policy.

GuideOne is one of an increasing number of Central Iowa companies that have adopted or are planning tobacco-free policies that prohibit not only smoking and the use of chewing tobacco inside the buildings, but also anywhere on the company’s property.

Among the earliest and largest employers to adopt tobacco-free campuses were Des Moines’ three hospital systems: Iowa Health – Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines and Broadlawns Medical Center, which on July 1, 2006, adopted a uniform policy for each of their hospital campuses and clinic facilities.

Several other large Des Moines employers, among them ING Group NV, Qwest Communications International Inc., ITAGroup Inc. and Marsh, have adopted completely tobacco-free policies, said Kerry Wise, a program associate with the Lung Association’s Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership.

Once the hospitals made their transition last year, many Iowa workplaces took notice and have begun to make changes in their offices.
– Kerry Wise Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership

Also, nonprofit organizations such as Lutheran Services of Iowa, Cornerstone Recovery and Youth and Shelter Services of Iowa have adopted similar policies. Insurance broker Holmes Murphy & Associates Inc. plans to implement its tobacco-free policy on July 1.

“It’s a relatively new movement here in Iowa,” Wise said. “Once the hospitals made their transition last year, many Iowa workplaces took notice and have begun to make changes in their offices.”

U.S. employers lose billions of dollars annually due to smoking-related deaths and illnesses, according to a study conducted last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The direct medical costs associated with smoking total more than $75 billion annually, the CDC estimates. Smokers incur an average of 18 percent more in health-care expenses and take 2 1/2 more sick days annually than nonsmokers, according to the American Cancer Society.

Corporate tobacco-free policies are one aspect of an overall strategy toward reducing the number of smokers and the inherent health costs of smoking in Iowa, Wise said.

“It’s kind of like a three-legged stool: you have the increase in the tobacco tax, you have more establishments moving to no-tobacco policies, and you have more funding at the state level so there are resources in the community and at the state level such as Quitline Iowa,” he said.

About 12 percent of GuideOne’s employees use tobacco, according to a recently completed annual employee health screening, said John Roberts, the company’s vice president for human resources. About 600 people work at GuideOne’s headquarters in West Des Moines.

Prior to announcing the planned policy change in January, GuideOne assembled a committee that included smokers as well as nonsmokers to give employees input into how the policy would work. Among the carrots built into the policy is a one-time reimbursement of up to $300 for expenses related to quitting, in addition to the company’s annual $250 fitness expense reimbursement.

“We wanted to take away all the barriers to quitting,” Roberts said. Additionally, the company provides free smoking cessation classes at its headquarters. Employees can be fired for multiple violations of the policy. To his knowledge, no employees who smoke have quit their jobs since the policy was announced, he said.

Of the 10 employees who have gone through the Freedom from Smoking classes, five have been able to quit while the remainder are trying to quit, said Cindy Sullivan, GuideOne’s wellness program coordinator.

“Those who quit are discovering other ways to stay healthy,” she said. “They’re able to walk in the mornings, for instance, without getting out of breath.”

Several have also begun participating in some of the company’s fitness programs, she said.

Holmes Murphy’s chairman and chief executive officer, Doug Reichardt, was a driving force in his company’s decision to adopt a tobacco-free policy, said Amanda Van Genderen, a senior human resources specialist at Holmes Murphy. The company in January announced its plan to employees to become tobacco-free on July 1.

“His philosophy is that you set high standards, and you carry that over to your personal and professional life,” she said. “I would say it’s just part of our overall culture of wellness that we’re trying to promote here at Holmes Murphy. We thought a tobacco-free policy was a good way to encourage employees to adopt more healthy habits.”

The company has established smoking cessation classes for its employees who smoke, whom she estimated at about 25 of the company’s 450 employees.

Sue Allyn, vice president of human resources for Iowa Health – Des Moines, said between 500 and 700 people have participated in smoking cessation classes conducted at its three hospitals since Iowa Health’s hospitals and clinics went to tobacco-free campuses in July 2006.

Though the hospitals have not tracked how many employees have quit smoking, she said, “personally, I know many, many people who were smokers who came up to me and said, ‘I always wanted to quit, and this has enabled me to do it.'”

At the same time, some employees still smoke on the public sidewalks along the perimeter of the hospital campuses, she said. Because the city of Des Moines hasn’t enacted ordinances against that, “I can’t ask them to move,” Allyn said. “We do ask them to be good citizens.”

Allyn, who describes herself as a “recovering smoker,” said she knows how hard it is to quit. “I’m not a zealot; I just ask employees not to smoke at work, and we’ll help them quit,” she said.

Companies also hope to benefit the bottom line through a healthier work force, which should lead to lower health-care costs and eventually, lower health insurance premiums.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield does not provide any direct incentives to companies that adopt tobacco-free workplace policies, said Angela Feig, a Wellmark spokeswoman. “The premiums for these companies will decrease to the extent that they have healthier employees,” she said.

Wiley attributed much of his success in quitting to a three-month treatment involving a drug his doctor prescribed, Chantix.

“I’m glad I did do this, and I wish I had done this when I was 14 years old,” Wiley said.

He has since paid for his son to get a prescription for Chantix, which enabled him to quit in November. His daughter, who is still taking the drug, stopped smoking three weeks ago, he said.

Wiley said the recent $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax enacted by the Legislature earlier this year was not a factor in his decision to quit. He would have simply driven to Missouri every few months to stock up, he said.

Having the money that’s not spent on cigarettes is an added bonus, Wiley said. “Of course, it’s my wife who gets that money,” he said.