Some Employees Steamed : Smokes Are Doused in U.S. Offices

Maurice Perdomo was thinking of quitting anyway. But as of Friday, Perdomo, a federal employee in Santa Ana, had to quit smoking--at least at his desk.

Throughout the offices of the Federal Building, from the Internal Revenue Service to the Secret Service, workers accustomed to lighting up on the job had to wait for a break instead, and non-smokers got their first smoke-free day at the office.

Under a new federal regulation, effective Friday, smoking is now restricted to designated areas in the nations’s 6,800 federal buildings managed by the the General Services Administration.

In Santa Ana, that means employees and visitors are allowed to smoke only in the seventh-floor cafeteria and outside the building.

Resents Rule

Joan Florio, a data review technician for Social Security, who was taking a break in the cafeteria Friday, said she resents the new regulation.

“I find it rather inconvenient,” Florio said. “I don’t like people telling me how to run my life.”

Florio conceded that it could be worse. “We’re outnumbered by non-smokers,” she said. “They could tell us we couldn’t smoke at all.”

Sharon Julson, a claims representative for Social Security, said she was less annoyed with the new rule.

“I don’t think it’s a bad policy,” Julson said. “Smokers have rights, too.”

Julson said Social Security has not allowed smoking in its offices for more than five years but allows workers four five-minute smoking breaks a day.

Approves of Rule

Ranie Zuidema, one of Perdomo’s co-workers in the Defense Contracts Administration Services, said he thinks the new rule is great.

“I don’t think there should be smoking in any public building,” said Zuidema, who had smoked for 40 years before he quit 14 years ago. “Smoking bothers me, especially if it’s heavy.”

Federal Building officials said it was too early to tell if smokers were obeying the rule.

“It’s going to be a slow process, but people are going to get used to it,” said Lorraine Cushnyr, GSA assistant field officer manager. “The nonsmoking rule applies to all public areas, including lobbies, corridors and restrooms.”

GSA has no specific plans for enforcing the rules, Cushnyr said, except to ask smokers to put out their cigarettes and hope that peer pressure will discourage smokers from lighting up. Signs stating “No smoking except in designated areas” are posted throughout the building.

Cushnyr said she is most concerned about smoking in stairwells because of safety and cleaning problems. “I walk this building every day from top to bottom and find a lot of cigarette butts,” she noted.

While smoking is banned in public areas, each agency may determine whether smoking is permissible in its offices.