Smoking in the work place 24/7. What does the World Health Organization say about this ?

“As a matter of social justice, human suffering related to work is unacceptable. Moreover, appreciable financial losses result from the burden of occupational and work related diseases on national health and social security systems, as well as from their negative influence on production and quality of products. All these adverse consequences, which are economically costly to employers and to society, are preventable through measures which have been known for a long time, and which are often of low cost.”

During the 1980s heavy smoking had still been allowed in the work place, despite of the fact that inside the high-rise downtown Calgary buildings (oil companies mostly) Warnings were posted inside the elevators: SMOKING IS NOT ALLOWED. Think about it.

What does it feel like to work daily in such an environment: You arrive at 8 am in the morning at your workplace, either office space, or as in the Computer & Data Processing departments more often than not ‘cubicles’, meaning low partitions and one large area shared by many. Then once many smokers have lighted up, as a non-smoker you start inhaling the deadly fumes.

Within a few hours you start trembling and feeling like your body really wants it, but your brain does not. That is what we call ‘secondary smoke inhalation addiction’. What follows: chronic allergies, respiratory problems. I had my first sinus surgery in 1983 following extensive tests to all sorts of allergens, TOBACCO bringing out the worst reactions.

Bottom-line: At TCPL (Trans Canada Pipelines) Resources I made a few comments on this, the situation was well known to the company. Eventually during the oil industry downturn following the years 1985 I got laid off with a Micky mouse severance pay of $14,000 (after 7 years in the Calgary oil industry, no pension), while the heaviest smokers on my IS project team stayed.  As per TCPL Resources, this process can be referred to as their own little version of “social justice”. 

[s.a. http://renataveritasopinion.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/tcpl-resources-trans-canada-a-history/ ; http://renataveritasopinion.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/secondhand-smoke-tcpl-resources-ltd/ ; https://renataveritashistory.com/2013/07/03/trans-canada-pipelines-tcpl-resources/ ;

SMOKING CAN KILL – the Lung Association British Columbia : [http://www.bc.lung.ca/ ] [ http://www.ilo.org/safework_bookshelf/english?content&nd=857170157

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