April 1 , 2008
Breathe California Sponsors Bill to Make All California Hospitals Smoke-Free
Breathe California is proud to be co-sponsoring AB 574, a new state bill authored by Assembly member Jerry Hill ( San Mateo) that would make all hospital campuses in California completely smoke-free!
As centers for public health, hospitals have a responsibility to provide patients, visitors, and staff with a healthy, clean air environment. Smoke free hospital campuses encourage patients, visitors and employees to quit smoking while simultaneously providing protections from involuntary exposure to the unhealthy effects of second hand smoke. This is especially important for at-risk individuals, including those with asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.
In California, 73 hospitals have voluntarily prohibited smoking throughout their campuses, including all Kaiser-affiliated hospitals, and more than 1,250 other private and public hospitals have done so across the nation. These hospitals report almost no problems with compliance or enforcement of their restrictions, and national research confirms substantial increases in successful quit by both patients and employees when smoking is controlled. The cost of compliance is minimal and the overwhelming majority of both smoking and non-smoking hospital employees strongly support the change.
In addition, AB 574 would require hospitals to post no-smoking signs and help refer patients to smoking cessation services. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that the quit ratio is greater for hospital employees in smoke free environments than employees in hospitals without smoking restrictions, and these results are consistent with studies conducted by the University of Michigan Health System, Mayo Clinic, and Spectrum Health.