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Hospital grounds go tobacco free Nov. 19 

Frankfort Regional Medical Center is going tobacco free - outdoors and in.

In conjunction with the American Cancer Society's 34th Great American Smokeout Challenge on Nov. 19, the local medical center is creating a tobacco free environment.

Administrators and medical staff believe the move is vital to promoting the health of patients, visitors, employees, volunteers, medical staff and others, according to a news release.

Tobacco use of any kind will not be permitted:

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• Wear | Hospital smoking shelters U-turn 

Sunderland Royal Hospital is "reluctantly" reinstating shelters for smokers in its grounds.

Health bosses admit they are unable to stop people disobeying the no-smoking rule and lighting up just outside the hospital's main doors.

This had led to complaints by patients and staff about second-hand smoke drifting into the building.

Purpose-built shelters, which were dismantled two years ago, are to be set up again.

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VIDEO: Smoke-free hospital grounds idea 

Smoking could be banned in hospital grounds in Wales, it has emerged.

Health Minister Edwina Hart described the level of smoking she saw at one maternity unit as "quite amazing".

But she told the Welsh assembly health committee that no firm conclusions had been reached on making hospitals entirely smoke-free.

Ms Hart also said there was a "low-level discussion" with the UK government on the possible outlawing of tobacco vending machines.

She warned that policing a ban in hospital grounds might be difficult as staff could "get an absolute mouthful".

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Coffee to allow smoking in park  

Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital - Administrators at Coffee Health Group have agreed to open the park across the street from Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital emergency room for smokers.

The decision was made during Monday's board meeting and comes in response to complaints by residents who live in homes that border the hospital to the south.

Coffee facilities became smoke free Oct. 1 in response to a Florence city ordinance that bans smoking in all public buildings and on public property. Coffee Health Group includes ECM Hospital and ECM East in Florence and Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals.

Bridges Crawford, who lives near ECM, had complained that smokers were making their way across Alabama Street and up Water Avenue to smoke near homes in the Rivermont subdivision.

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Smoking ban debated 

On Oct. 6 the Aldermanic Human Services Committee approved the hospital’s request to ban smoking on the publicly owned sections of Chapel, Orchard and George streets and Sherman Avenue, and sent the request to the full Board of Aldermen, which will vote on it Nov. 5. At the same meeting, Ward 20 Alderman Charles Blango, who chairs the committee, decided to delay action on a similar request by Masjid al-Islam, a neighboring mosque on George Street, until the Board of Aldermen’s Nov. 5 meeting.

“I didn’t want to open up a Pandora’s Box,” Blango said of his decision, citing his reluctance to set a precedent for allowing non-medical, private institutions such as the mosque to restrict smoking on public property. When Ward 23 Alderman Yusuf Shah, who is a member of Masjid al-Islam, submitted in late September the original proposal to ban smoking around the hospital, the proposal banned smoking on the sidewalks around both the hospital and the mosque. In late September, the Board of Aldermen unanimously voted down the proposal because it wanted to hold a public hearing on the issue. The board sent the request to the Human Services Committee for review because it had done so for a similar proposal by Yale-New Haven Hospital earlier this year.

At the committee’s Oct. 6 meeting, a number of aldermen asked Shah why he had included the mosque in the proposal, and Shah said he feared the ban would deter smokers displaced from St. Raphael’s from smoking in front of the mosque.

But Blango introduced an amendment to separate the two areas because people on the committee said they had concerns about legal problems that could arise if the ban were approved, Blango said. Blango also asked to see a legal opinion from an outside expert on any potential legal problems that could arise from the mosque’s request.

The debate about the appropriateness of the city’s efforts to regulate smoking on public property is playing out on streets surrounding St. Raphael’s, where half a dozen employees and patients interviewed expressed mixed feelings about the pending ban.

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Uniontown Hospital Now Smoke-Free; Fine Set  

A hospital in Fayette County is the latest to go smoke-free.

The ban on smoking in Uniontown Hospital, or on property it controls, went into effect Monday.

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Hospital snuffs out smoking 

Smokers beware: As of today, Uniontown Hospital is smoke-free and violators may be prosecuted.

"We are going to be completely smoke-free on our entire medical campus, which includes the block the hospital is on and the medical arts building next to us,'' said Paul Bacharach, hospital president and chief executive officer.

The hospital is taking a stricter position by banning smoking inside and outside, especially at its entrances.

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Schuyler Hospital to go tobacco-free in 2010  

Schuyler Hospital announced Monday that it will go tobacco-free starting Jan. 1.

No tobacco use of any kind will be permitted -- inside or outside -- at any Schuyler Hospital facility starting Jan. 1, according to a press release from the hospital.

All designated smoking areas will be eliminated, and employees, patients and visitors will be offered gum and other items in order to avoid tobacco-use while on hospital property.

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Syracuse hospitals to enforce smoking ban November 19  

Four Syracuse hospitals will begin enforcement of a new Onondaga County law that bans smoking within 100 feet of a health care facility on Nov. 19, the date of the annual Great American Smokeout.

The law, which took effect Sunday, prohibits smoking on any public streets, sidewalks and parking facilities within 100 feet of a hospital in the county as long as a sign is posted. Individuals smoking in those areas would be subject to a $50 fine.

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Shands snuffs out smoking at hospitals  

Tonight, the scenario will play out differently.

The atrium may be empty. Or people may go there to enjoy the fresh air. But the tobacco ban that begins today at Shands HealthCare and the University of Florida Health Science Center leaves one thing for certain.

There will be no smoking.

Melanie Ross, director of news and communication at UF's Health Science Center, said the ban is a part of Tobacco Free Together, a campaign designed to promote healthy habits.

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UF Bans Smoking  

The University of Florida is trying to help curb the nation's most preventable cause of death and disease.

Patients, students, employees and visitors won't be able to smoke at any UF Health Science and Shands Healthcare facilities anymore.

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Campus-wide smoking ban starts Sunday 

The first phase of UF's campus-wide tobacco ban will go into effect Sunday at UF's Health Science Center and all Shands at UF facilities.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium went smoke-free in September, and the rest of the campus will follow suit on July 1.

In preparation for the Nov. 1 phase of the ban, UF and Shands have been putting up posters detailing the new policy and removing ashtrays in affected buildings.

They've also been letting employees and patients know about ways to quit smoking, like free counseling sessions and free or discounted medications.

People don't seem to be rushing to the free sessions, however.

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Arbitrator rules ACMH's smoking ban unreasonable  

EAST FRANKLIN -- Employees of one union at ACMH Hospital have won the right to smoke in a designated area, after an arbitrator ruled against a hospital policy this week.

The union representing the nonprofessional employees at the hospital had challenged a ban that was initiated Jan. 1 that prohibits smoking by anyone anywhere on hospital property, in an unfair labor practices complaint.

The arbitrator in the complaint decided the hospital's policy is unreasonable because it fails to make reasonable accommodation for employees to smoke in a designated area -- a past practice of the hospital, it was ruled as well.

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Kunrath: Making our campus tobacco-free 

Signs designate the childcare center at the Yale School of Medicine as a smoke-free area, but cigarette butts litter the sidewalks and smokers regularly light up on the Medical School campus. This tolerance of smoking across the street from Yale-New Haven Hospital sends a mixed message to patients, students and community members, who look to the school and the hospital for guidance on all matters related to health.

Yale University proudly advertises its many sustainability efforts, including the Yale Farm, biodiesel buses and LEED-certified Kroon Hall. However, there is a missing component to this picture: sustainable health. In order for Yale to promote sustainability on all levels, the administration should adopt a 100 percent tobacco-free policy for all indoor and outdoor areas of the medical campus. . . .

Tobacco-free policies are not inherently anti-smoker; their purpose is to support a healthy environment, not to exclude those who smoke. Considering the economic and health burdens of tobacco use, Yale University should join the tobacco-free movement, creating a cleaner and safer campus, setting a health-promoting example for students and the community, and achieving sustainability in both health and environment.

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At Evanston park, a turf war between mentally ill patients and parents who live nearby 

A small Evanston park offers a place to relax for men and women who live at a nearby mental health center, but it is off-limits for some parents worried about cigarette smoke and uncomfortable encounters.

Grey Park's playground -- with its teeter-totters and tot lot -- sits virtually unused these days. . . .

Some have suggested eliminating the playground to focus more on drawing adults into the park. They also have discussed designating a smoking area and upgrading the dilapidated community garden. . . .

Tossi said Albany Care, a 417-bed facility, has smoking rooms. If the city ever bans smoking in the park, he said he would try to ensure that residents complied. But smoking, he said, is important to some who live at the center, and he can't stop them.

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