Look around you. Is anyone you work with currently puffing away on a cigarette inside? Is smoke curling up from the cubicles nearby? Not likely, but while smoking inside at the workplace is a thing of the past for most companies today, there’s one business where it was still welcome, until now at least: Reynolds American, makers of Camel cigarettes, announced this week that its employees will no longer be allowed to smoke indoors as of Jan. 1, 2015.

While the founders of the tobacco company might never have foreseen a policy against smoking, Reynolds and its subsidiaries will enforce the no-smoking rule within its facilities, except in designated smoking areas, reports the Winston-Salem Journal.

Traditional cigarettes, cigarettes and pipes won’t be smoked at desks, in conference rooms, in elevators or hallways, a company spokesman told the paper, and the rules will stick for every employee. Electronic cigarettes, heat-not-burn cigarettes, moist snuff and snus will be permissible inside.

“We will restrict traditional smoking to the designated areas as they are put together in 2015 and 2016,” the spokesman said. “The bottom line is that we believe it is the right thing to do, updating our tobacco usage policies, at the right time to do it. The policy change will better accommodate nonsmokers and visitors to our facilities.”

And if you were wondering if the lateness of this policy coming about is because everyone at the company smokes, Reynold’s spokesman says that’s not true — employees are like everyone else in the country, with about 20% being smokers, despite the fact that they work at a cigarette company.

“The use of tobacco products or cigarettes by our employees is pretty close to in line with what you see out in the general public,” he said. “Recognizing that indoor smoking restrictions are the norm today, and most people expect a smokefree workplace environment, we believe we are better aligning our tobacco use policies with those we’re seeing in the general public.”

Camel maker Reynolds snuffs out workplace smoking [Winston-Salem Journal]

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