Smoking tobacco use among operating room personnel.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of smoking operating room personnel and compare this with that of the general public. Given the first hand exposure of these individuals to patients with smoking related illnesses, we believe they should have a decreased tendency to smoke.

Methods: A survey instrument was given to operating room personnel in order to learn the prevalence of smoking and other tobacco use related data. Prevalence for the general population and other healthcare related populations was investigated using various search engines and compared with our results.

Results: A total of 113 individuals completed the survey, 6% were found to be current smokers and 15% were found to be past smokers. Data from the Center for Disease Control shows that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among United States adults is 19%, which is significantly higher than what we found in our population (<0.01). In Puerto Rico, the prevalence of smoking is 11%, which is also higher than our study population (p=0.05). Among current smokers, 86% have tried to quit at least once (p=0.02), and all claimed to have knowledge of the possible complications associated with smoking.

Conclusions: Smoking tobacco remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States despite many efforts to educate the general public on the dangers associated with its use. a more visual or hand's on encounter with the effects of smoking may help decrease tobacco burden in the general population.