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 attitudes towards smoking and tobacco control was e-mailed to all staff at one TAFE New South Wales (NSW) institute. In total, 632 staff completed the survey. Results: Overall, 10% of staff reported to be current daily, weekly or occasional smokers. Most staff (76.2%) said that they saw someone smoking at TAFE 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