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Sources: Knoxville's major health systems to announce smoking ban for employees  

The Knoxville area's five major health systems are expected to announce Wednesday a smoking ban for employees on their hospital campuses.

Executives from University of Tennessee Medical Center, Covenant Health, Mercy Health Partners, Blount Memorial Hospital and East Tennessee Children's Hospital have called a press conference for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Knox County Health Department to announce an unprecedented unified "health initiative related to tobacco usage."

Sources say the executives likely will announce a smoking ban for employees as a first step in prohibiting tobacco use on the health care centers' premises.

The ban may not yet apply to patients and visitors to the hospitals, who now must use specially designated areas to smoke on the hospital campuses.

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