Support for smoke-free vocational education settings: An exploratory survey of staff behaviours, experiences and attitudes

Issue addressed: TAFE staff are likely to play a pivotal role in achieving smoke free environments for vocational education. The aim of this survey was to explore staff experiences, behaviours and attitudes towards smoking and smoke free policies for the TAFE setting. Method: A web based survey that measured smoking behaviours, on campus exposure to smoking, awareness of smoke free policies and altitudes towards smoking and tobacco control was e mailed to all staff at oneTAFE New South Wales (NSW) institute.total, 632 staff completed the survey. Results: Overall, 10% of staff reported to be current daily, weekly or occasional smokers. Most staff (762%) said that they saw someone smoking atTAFE every day and the most common location was 'outside buildings'(75.3%). A majority of staff (75.9%) said they avoided places at TAFE where they were exposed to other peoples'cigarette smoke. Only 26% said that existing smoking policies were always enforced. Non smokers had a significantly higher (p<0.005) prc-tobacco control attitudes score mean of 4.2 (SD=1.8), compared with the mean of 23 (SD=1.4) for current smokers. Status as a non-smoker was the only statistically significant predictor of high pro tobacco control attitude score. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that TAFE staff are likely to be supportive of smoke free TAFE campuses.