Jump to full article: Marines, 2009-10-23
Author: Cpl. R. Logan Kyle , Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms
Intro: Sailors and civilian personnel employed at the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital will soon have to change their tobacco habits while at work.
Beginning Jan. 1, military and civilian personnel will no longer be authorized to use tobacco products of any form while on naval hospital and all other naval medical care center grounds.
The policy will also go into effect aboard Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center Bridgeport, Calif., and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.
Martha Hunt, the Health Promotions and Awareness coordinator at the hospital, said the move to ban tobacco from hospital grounds has been a long time coming.
“This process began in July 2008,” said the Pontiac, Mich., native. “In July, the Surgeon General of the Navy [Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson Jr.] signed a policy encouraging the ban of all tobacco use on naval hospital campuses.”
In the document, Robinson challenged naval commanders and senior enlisted advisors to make the move to tobacco-free naval medical facilities quick and thorough.
“The unnecessary, harmful effects of tobacco on our service members and the burden on our healthcare system must be addressed,” said the Louisville, Ky., native in Navy Policy 09-009. “Our strong commitment to the health and well-being of our service members is most clearly evident by our own examples of a tobacco-free lifestyle.”
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