SEATTLE -- The Boeing Co., which banned smoking in some workplace areas three years ago, decided to prohibit all its office workers from puffing cigarettes while on the job starting July 1.
The ban will apply to all management, clerical, engineering, accounting and marketing offices, or the vast majority of the aerospace giant's 115,000 employees around the country.
Excluded from the nationwide ban will be factory areas in which smoking is allowed currently.
'This is our biggest step so far,' spokesman Lee Lathrop said of the policy announced in company newsletters and employee meetings Thursday and Friday.
Lathrop said polls indicate 72 percent of the Boeing workforce are non-smokers.
In April 1984, Boeing announced a smoking ban for areas such as libraries, hallways and conference rooms. The aerospace giant also tossed out cigarette machines and offered stop-smoking classes.
The smoking prohibition was extended to Boeing Computer Services and Boeing Electronics in July 1986.
'This is the next logical step,' Lathrop said of the July policy. 'I would expect reaction to this latest ban to be overwhelmingly positive.'
He said factory areas were excluded from the company-wide police because 'we have a higher percentage of smokers in the factory areas.'
