Hardly anyone this side of a 1950s public service announcement would maintain that cigarettes are good for you, so it can be disconcerting to see people smoking outside a place devoted to health, a hospital.
That practice, already banned at a number of area hospitals, is about to be ended at the UC Davis Health System in Sacramento.
As of Tuesday, the entire campus will become smoke-free. Kaiser hospitals in the Sacramento area banned smoking anywhere on their property more than a year ago, and Sutter Memorial and Sutter General hospitals did the same last fall.
UC Davis' policy was a year in the making. The effort was led by a 13-member committee.
"It wasn't that long ago that you would see films with doctors pointing at diagrams and taking big puffs of cigarettes talking about smoking's health benefits," said Charles Casey, senior public affairs officer for UC Davis Health System and a member of the committee.
"It's high time we did something about this rather than letting secondhand smoke endanger people," Casey said.
Less than a week before the restriction goes into effect, it's still possible to find patients wheeling IV units in their pastel gowns lighting up in designated smoking areas outside buildings.
In their scrubs and uniforms, employees appear for their smoke break under signs alerting them to the impending change.
Employees near the smoking areas have reported that smoke inevitably enters the hospital.
"We've known the risks of passive smoking for years and over the last decade, expanding research maintains that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke," said Dr. Allan Siefkin, chief medical officer at the medical center and a member of the smoke-free committee. "We are a health care organization and our mission is education and public service, and we have to take a leadership position."
In an outside smoking area this week, Tina Boatwright and Shelia Carpenter were finishing up cigarettes before their weekly substance-abuse support group.
Boatwright, who has lived in Sacramento for 19 years, said she has been a smoker since age 6. She doesn't plan to quit and opposes the limitation on smoking. Not having a smoke at her meeting, she said, will make her feel "awful."
Carpenter, also from Sacramento, disagreed.
"It's a great idea, I'm trying to quit smoking, so I'm OK with waiting until after my meetings to smoke," she said.
These women, however, are in the smoke-free environment for only a few hours a week.
The UC Davis Health System recognizes that the transition period may be more difficult for longer-term patients and employees, and has established a cessation program and other support mechanisms.
Suzanne McInish of the otolaryngology academic office said the program helped her quit smoking after 30 years of a few packs of Marlboro Lights a week.
"In otolaryngology, there's a lot of dealing with head and neck cancer, some of it from smoking," McInish said. "And right before I quit, I ran into an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) who told me my voice was getting raspy, which is usually the first sign of a problem … that was scary, and I am so glad UC Davis is doing this."
Senior custodian William Ong said work was the last place he could smoke his Misty Ultra Light Menthols; his family has forbidden him to smoke at home.
"I've tried to quit, but then I have a problem, and I stress out and I smoke," Ong said. "I know I can quit, it's all in your head, and I will go to the program."
Ong was handing out cigarettes to anyone who asked from what he said is his last pack.
Call The Bee's Rachael Bogert, (916) 321-1020.
