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Is It Appropriate? Is It Feasible?

Judy M. Knapp, MPH; Thomas E. Kottke, MD, MSPH

Arch Intern Med. 1991;151(1):32-35.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A nachronism: anything out of its proper time in history." Smoking in hospitals is an anachronism. The question of whether tobacco smoke is harmful to smokers was answered more than 20 years ago, and the 1986 Surgeon General's report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, concludes that tobacco smoke is harmful to nonsmokers.¹ This report briefly reviews the rationale for policies that prohibit smoking in hospitals, examines the feasibility of such policies, lists the support for smoke-free hospitals, and describes the potential barriers to smoke-free hospitals. Finally, it reviews three smoke-free hospital implementation strategies.

WHY SHOULD HOSPITALS BE SMOKE-FREE?

Allowing smoking in a hospital conveys to patients the tacit message that the hospital approves of smoking.² A smoke-free hospital (no smoking anywhere inside the hospital building) strengthens the message that smoking is a health hazard. Many patients treated in hospitals suffer from illnesses whose symptoms are aggravated by . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Minnesota Smoke-Free 2000 Coalition Ford Center, Suite 525 420 N 5th St Minneapolis, MN 55401; Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN 55455

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