Goodyear Goes Smoke Free

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co is aiming to be a smoke free company, and this time the development has nothing to do with burning rubber. Instead Goodyear is the first major employer in the US state of Ohio to take part in an anti-smoking programme that provides free nicotine patches to employees who smoke and want to quit, the Akron Beacon Journal has reported. The programme is a joint effort with the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, which is splitting the cost of the patches with Goodyear.

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to offer this programme,’” Dr Barbara Toeppen-Sprigg, medical director of global services for Goodyear told the newspaper. The company estimates that 16 per cent of about 3,500 Akron employees smoke, a percentage less than the national average.

Goodyear’s share of the cost is $45 for a four-week supply of patches per person. The course also includes telephone counselling.

US federal figures are reported to show that employers who help workers stop smoking save an average of $1,623 a year in health costs, while gaining an average of $1,760 worth of productivity from each employee.