AIBU about smoking at work?

[pushingthroughcracks]

It's entirely possible there is absolutely nothing that can be done here :)

Here is my situation. I work in healthcare. Part of my role involves going to people's homes.

Many of the homes I go into have people who smoke heavily. I am reluctant to sound precious but it is affecting my health. I have a cough that won't go away.

Surely given people realise we have to visit them at home it is reasonable for them to have a room smoke-free? My eyes and throat are stinging

How long does a visit last and how many of these visits do you carry out each day? I'm afraid that yes it would be unreasonable to dictate how someone smokes in their own home.

Ugh. I feel for you. I can no longer go to DHs aunts house as it leaves me gasping for my inhaler and a migraine.

Can you get another job?

You can't ask someone not to smoke in their own home. You have my sympathies because being a non-smoker in a place that reeks of cigarettes is not particularly pleasant but if the person you're seeing isn't smoking in front of you, I'd expect that's the best you can hope for.

Have you been to a doctor? A cough that won't go away could be any number of things.

Are you on a set schedule? Perhaps you could ask people not to smoke for half an hour before you're due, and to open a window for that time (weather dependent).

It isn't getting another job situation - it took me years to qualify and while technically i could elicit to be purely hospital based the advantages are considerable.

The cough is smoking related.

How do you know your cough is smoking related?

Have you seen occupational health?

www.heraldscotland.com/news/12491976.Smoking_ban_leaves_home_care_workers_at_risk_LEGAL_RIGHTS__DILEMMA_FOR_BOSSES__National_guidelines_to_be_introduced_to_protect_social_workers__nurses_and_healthcare_staff_who_work_in_the_homes_of_smokers/

I think the law is that the smoking ban does not apply to care workers etc who visit people in their homes, but I know that our council asks people not to smoke for 2 hours prior to workmen coming to do a job.

I think the best you could hope for is someone not smoking while you are there.

Do they actually smoke in your presence or are you just sitting in a room that smells of smoke? If it's the former, ask them not to do so. If it's the latter, I don't understand how they can cause a cough?

Get risk assessed by your occupational health team. If they say you should work in a smoke-free environment, then perhaps your caseload can be adapted.

Although it would mean that some other poor sod would be lumbered with these smokey patients instead.

www2.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/78702/003043.pdf

The cough is smoking related.

Do you mean you have asthma (for example) and the smoke exacerbates it? Do you only cough when / after visiting these houses? Have you a diagnosis/seen a doctor?

Can you ask your employer whether there is any strategy they recommend? It's presumably a health and safety issue if it is affecting you in this way.

If it's practical (i.e. you're not in a precarious position employment-wise) speak to your HR department about possible strategies? Or do you have a union who could advise on your rights/options?

I never cough when not at work. I go into someone's smoke filled home and cannot stop coughing

The visits vary by and large. It is a tricky one because I respect it is their home: at the same time to all intents and purposes it's also my workplace for some of my working week.

It's a disgusting habit and very selfish. It's completely unfair for you to have to work in such circumstances.

Since it's affecting your health, I think you have the right to veto any smoke-filled homes. If everyone does it, maybe people may start taking their own health a little more seriously.

Is there any advice available from management or from a union?

If you have a google you should be able to find a recent ish court case about this. I think it was a community psych team. The outcome was that they had to risk assess it and eventually a policy was brought in that clients wre asked to abstain from smoking for around 2.5 hours before an expected visit.
Something along those lines anyway! Have you checked that your employer doesn't already have a policy about it?

This is between you and your employer I'm afraid. You can't dictate what your patients do at home (except not asking them to smoke when you are there). Your company might be able to only send you to smoke free homes if you have a letter from GP stating it is a health issue.

I don't work for a company. It's a contractual arrangement.

Wear a mask. Put vaseline up your nasal passages.

Or get another job.

You must have someone giving you the contract though?