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n By Hajera Blagg


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Smoking may slowly be going out of style, but visit any building site, and you wouldn’t know it. While overall rates continue to fall, the construction sector has among the highest rates of smoking out of all occupations.


The most recent government data, published in 2022, shows over 22 per cent of people in manual occupations smoke, compared to only 12.9 per cent in the general population.


And a survey carried out by online vape retailer HAYPP published last year found an even bigger problem in the building trades. Nearly half of all construction workers who responded to the 4,000-person survey reported they smoked.


So why are smoking rates so high among construction workers? Action on Smoking and Health’s (ASH) Hazel Cheeseman believes one reason may


30 unite buildingWORKER Spring 2025


be because the demographics of people who tend to smoke are overrepresented in construction.


For example, construction workers are more likely to be male, in manual work and many are from Eastern European countries where smoking rates are significantly higher.


But Hazel also highlighted what she called the ‘opportunity factor’.


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