One year ago Friday, nurse Kathy Bauer said good-bye to cigarettes, and she hasn?t gone back.
She did not go willingly ? her employer Greater Baltimore Medical Center announced that beginning Jan. 1, 2006, the entire medical campus would be smoke-free.
“I?m here more than 40 hours a week. … I wasn?t going to go through the day smokeless and go home to smoke,” she said. “By Friday, I?d be over in Sheppard Pratt” ? the neighboring hospital that serves the mentally ill.
“All in all, I was really angry but I decided to quit and that was that,” Bauer said.
Over the last year, seeing people flout the rule fueled her anger, but in time she realized the move to a smoke-free campus was the right thing to do. “I?m glad I did quit.”
Hospital Vice President Laurie Mead said they did not intend for employees like Bauer to quit. However, the hospital has an obligation to promote healthy living.
“I know Kathy very well. It pushed her into a healthier lifestyle that she knew she needed,” Mead said. “As a major provider of health care in the community, we?re committed to providing that healthy environment on our campus.”
Secondhand smoke ? a mixture of smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and that exhaled from the lungs of smokers ? is involuntarily inhaled by nonsmokers, according to the American Lung Association. It lingers in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished and can aggravate health conditions including cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.
Greater Baltimore Medical Center led a number of Baltimore regional hospitals and health centers going smoke-free, including St. Joseph Medical Center and Baltimore Washington Medical Center.
The year has gone well, Mead said. “Most people are compliant. The people I have had to address have extinguished their smoking materials when asked.”
Only one person in the year had to be escorted off campus when he refused to ditch his smoke, she said.
The hospital offered free smoking-cessation classes, and provides nicotine gum to smokers who just can?t make it through their workday or their visit. Patients must have the gum ordered by a physician, as it might aggravate some health conditions.
Bauer said she resisted the urge to take them up on gum and doesn?t have time for classes, but she did take advantage of the free chest MRI to see if she was at risk or already developing cancer or other lung conditions.
She was not.
“They have been incredibly positively supportive,” she said of the hospital.
