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Hospitals Going Smoke-Free
August 31, 2010
Sacred Heart Health System will go completely tobacco-free, indoors and out, at all of its facilities throughout Northwest Florida and Southern Alabama on Wednesday.
The new policy prohibits the use of any tobacco product on all properties owned or leased by Sacred Heart, including parking areas. The policy applies to patients, visitors, physicians, volunteers, vendors, tenants and employees.
“We know that tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States,” said SHHS President and CEO Laura Kaiser. “Even exposure to secondhand smoke has devastating health consequences. Our goal in going tobacco-free is to help provide a safer environment for all who visit and work at our facilities.”
All three of Sacred Heart’s hospitals are host sites for “Quit Smoking Now,” a free, six-week series of smoking-cessation classes for those who want to stop smoking. The next session at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola will begin in October. For more information on these free smoking cessation classes, which are available at locations throughout our region, call the Northwest Florida Area Health Education Center at 850-398-6965, or call the Florida Quitline toll-free at 1-877-822-6669.
Comments
16 Responses to “Hospitals Going Smoke-Free”
Now, hospitals need to implement stop smoking counseling to employees and patients. Employees, since they are the first line representatives of the hospital, and patients, since they are the customers of the hospital. Self help books like, “Speed Limits to a No Smoking Zone,” should be introduced to the employees and patients, since many people would rather not take medications.
Great News, if you can smell a cigarette from another car with your windows rolled up and ac on, you must have the olfactory capabilities of a bloodhound. It must be a burden to have this super sense of smell. In that case, I am sorry if my cigarette smoke bothers you – but my opinion of the rest of the haters and taxation without representation has not changed (and never will).
My windows are up and the air conditioner is on.
To the Smoker Haters like Great News : If I want to sit in MY vehicle and smoke a cigarrette, it is NONE of your concern. If the aroma bothers you in your vehicle, roll up your windows and turn on your AC. Inside a privately owned vehicle is private property, no matter where the vehicle is, as discussed in the shoot to kill cases not long ago. You haters get a kick out of the excessive taxation & bans, etc,. just remember when these commies are thru with the smokers, YOU may have something they go after like your Big Macs & liquor. You may become their next target group !
As the widow of a smoker, I know how frustrating it is for an individual to want to quit smoking, but cannot. My late husband battled with trying to quit for years. He knew the dangers, but with other health problems the stress of quitting sometimes made other issues worse. I am not condoning anyone smoking, as I have asthma, but I understand how addicting cigarettes can be. I agree with no smoking inside a facility, but cannot go along with not allowing someone to step outside to the parking lot away from the main facility as being productive. It would, in my opinion, only add further stress to those who cannot, for whatever reason, lay aside a cigarette.
HOPE THIS WILL HELP THE CHILDREN OF THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE IN THE HOSPITAL FOR EARS AND BREATHING PROBLEMS FROM PARENTS SMOKING IN THE HOUSE WITH THEM.ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THE DOCTORS ASK WHEN YOU TAKE A CHILD TO DOCTOR WITH EAR OR BREATHING PROBLEMS IS DO THE PARENTS SMOKE AROUND THEM. THIS IS A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE. I WALKED BY THE SMOKING ROOM IN A MAJOR AIRPORT SEVERAL MONTHS I SAW A WOMEN THAT WAS ABOUT 6 MONTHS PREGANT SMOKING ALONG WITH ABOUT 15 MORE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM. COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. TO THIS DAY I HAVE NOT FORGOT HER. TO BE BLESSED WITH A CHILD AND MAKE IT SMOKE BEFORE IT IT IS BORN .
Every adult has the right to smoke if they so desire on there own time, in their own vehicle, home or property. An employer is fully with in their right to ban smoking on company property.
Employers are also fully within their right to require you to be a non smoker as a condition of employment. Smokers drive up the cost of the companies group health insurance, which run up overhead and reduces their competitiveness.
Everyone has decisions in life. Is a good smoke worth loosing a good job? That’s why most all the weed smokers, frame houses, hang sheet rock or paint walls, no drug tests and usually no insurance.
A right to smoke–no matter whose health it affects? God gave us our rights, and I don’t believe He intended for us to breath someone else’s filthy second-hand smoke. I, too, have asthma. I can even smell it coming from other cars stopped for a red light. Just a whiff, and I have to use my inhaler. Sorry…your rights end where my begin.
I have been a Non-Smoker since Dec 4, 2009!! BUT I do not feel this is right. You are stepping all over what this country of ours is about-FREEDOM! It was not given to us, it was earned by those who came before and those fighting for it today. We may not make the best decisions, but they are at least your own. If you do not want tobacco use in your presence, then do not allow it in what you, yourself, can control and that is NOT the OUTSIDE world! If you were once a tobacco user and have since stopped AND you support this, then you are the worst one. You knowwhat having a tobacco habit is like.
it our choice just dont breath
Baptist Hospital has been smoke free since November last year…..Kudos to all facilities following suit.
Great news about the “no smoking”. Now if smokers could just read and OBEY the signs everyone would be healthier. BOOS to West Fl. for not making their facility smoke free. I heard a nurse say “let them smoke, just makes our job more secure”. Sad but true.
smoking is a personal choice, I might not smoke but I respect the right of people to do as they please. As long as they smoke away from the entrance to the hospital, I see no problem
The devastation is that non smokers have to walk in the parking lot! I myself have come out of children’s hospital with my little ones many times and have had to walk into a wall of 2nd hand smoke right at the doorway. Both my kids have asthma problems and we are smoke free former smokers…we don’t want our kids smoking your cigarettes! Even if you smoke 50 ft away..the breeze carries it away from you to others. Smoke in your car or your house..the rest of us don’t want to breathe that poison!
GOOD!
And the devasting health consequences of parking lot secondhand smoke are…?