Objective  To analyze smoking pattern and secondhand smoke exposure among employees in urban China.

  Methods  The data of the Assessment Survey on Need of Health Promotion in Workplaces – 2015 was used to analyze the smoking pattern and the prevalence of secondhand smoke exposure in 3 553 employees. Smoking rate, current smoking rate, daily smoking rate, heavy smoking rate, and the rate of secondhand smoke exposure were among the indicators of the study.

  Results  For all the employees, the smoking rate was 27.4% (48.3% for males and 3.0% for females); the current smoking rate was 24.2% (43.0% for males and 2.4% for females); the daily smoking rate was 22.4% (39.8% for males and 2.2% for females); and the heavy smoking rate was 4.1% (7.5% for males and 0.1% for females). Among the non-smoking employees, the rate of secondhand smoke exposure was 67.6% (73.7% for males and 63.4% for females). The current smoking rate was the highest (49.6%) among the employees working at construction sites. The current smoking rate differed significantly by gender, age, household registration, education, and type of work among the employees (all P < 0.05). The level of knowledge about smoking and diseases-related to secondhand smoke exposure was very poor among the employees; the awareness rate was only 4.4% for the three diseases related to smoking and 14.9% for three diseases correlated with secondhand smoke exposure in all the employees.

  Conclusion  Smoking rate and secondhand smoke exposure rate are at high level, while the knowledge about hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure is very poor among working populations in China.