BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Based on this, it appears that there is no required minimum distance (at least for non-hospitals), but the recommendation is 20 feet.

When the county modified the local smoking restrictions in 2006, they caved to the industry lobbyists, and made the minimum 5 feet.

When I worked at West Penn you could't smoke anywhere on hospital property, I would think the rules should be the same for AGH but that was well over a year ago and 5 CEO's ago

Ultimately it depends on the property owner, most building owners also own the sidewalk around the building. If they don't want to clean up cigarette buts they can prohibit smoking on the entire property.

I remember seeing a news broadcast last year about St. Margaret hospital. UPMC banned smoking on all hospital property and the employees had to walk a block away to catch a smoke. Then the neighbors called the local news to complain about all the buts on the sidewalk in front of their houses.

^ well that explains why all the smokers at Shadyside smoke over at the bus stop in front of Boston Market.

university of rochester hospitals back home have a strict campus wide ban on smoking. including the parking lots. you can be reprimanded up to and including dismissal if you are caught doing it. that's why my dumbass cousin didn't take a job there as a nurse.

When my wife started nursing school in the mid-1980s, 35 of the 42 members of her freshman class were smokers. It wasn't too long before this that you could actually smoke in the hospital itself.

Thank you, C. Everett Koop, for wising us up as a nation.

Ugh. My mind was blown when I found out that smoking used to happen IN the hospital. I remember hearing something about the Cleveland clinic not hiring smokers. I wonder if that ever happened.

Anyway, I am just sick of it,not only at work, but when I try to walk into the theater or other businesses without holding my breath.

Stu, I'd be curious to know what the numbers are now. When I pass by a hospital, I see plenty of people in scrubs smoking.

I think UPMC's policy is no smoking on UPMC property. Period.

There is a business in my neighbor that employs a good number of people that has a no smoking policy on their "campus" so everyone walks across the vast parking lot and smokes across the street in the GetGo parking lot.

I have more photos but could only find this one. Bunch of inconsiderate assholes. Here someone is trying to accommodate their habit and they shit all over them.

Epic photo. I may steal it.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08255/910923-54.stm

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07174/796618-85.stm

"Mr. Froehlich said the residents' greatest concern is not the hospital workers -- who are typically courteous and smoke only on breaks -- but rather visitors who smoke at all hours and the patients who are sometimes wheeling an IV and dressed only in a hospital gown."

Ugh. I used to smoke but I don't think I would have ever walked two blocks in a hospital gown with an IV to have one.

People are going to smoke, whether you like it or not. Staff, Patients, Visitors all will do this. An inflexible no-smoking policy will not stop them, and makes the facility a bad neighbor.

Providing a space at the edge of the property ON PREMISES is the only neighborly thing to do. I'm sure the smokers would be less of an issue for neighbors if they were on the hospital property, had access to trash cans and ash trays, and maybe even a roof to protect them somewhat during inclimate weather.

However, administrators surely view this as endorsing unhealthy behavior and will likely not institute changes unless being 'convinced' by their local government to make changes.

Smoking has killed more people then Stalin.

Banning smoking at all hospitals is the right thing to do.

Benzo, you are totally right. I used to work for a prominent health book/magazine publisher, and while smoking on premises was allowed, it was very bad for your career.

The municipal park across the street was practically carpeted with cigarette butts. On rainy days, smokers would load up in a car and drive around together at lunchtime.

Banning or frowning on it doesn't help. It just moves it out of sight.

If you must smoke, vape. That is all.

@stefb My mind was blown when I found out that smoking used to happen IN the hospital.

In the early 1990's, when I worked at Montefiore Hospital, the cafeteria had a smoking and non-smoking section. The hospital used the smoking section for various seminars or meetings. When they did this, the smokers would feel free to smoke in the non-smoking section.

Smoking was allowed in college classrooms until sometime in the 70's - you could pick up these little folding ashtrays outside of most lecture halls at universities.

People smoked at work any place there wasn't a specific fire hazard. People smoked in doctor's offices.

IIRC, greater than 70% of adults smoked when I was a kid.

Part of the rationale for geting people outside of buildings to smoke is that some portion of the damage a smoker does to themselves is their own second hand smoke. (Maybe a quarter?)

The cigarette companies used to say that there weren't studies that showed people who were not exposed to tobacco smoke were healthier than comparable people who were exposed to smoke. They did not mention that the reason for that was scientists were unable to find normal adults who did NOT have measurable exposure to tobacco smoke - except in a monastery in California, which was not considered a valid control.

I gave up smoking tobacco when it was still fairly common. My tolerance for other people's smoke then puzzles me now - I dated women that smoked, I had roommates that smokes, etc.

Now? I was irritated last night at someone smoking a cigarette on their porch as I rode up a hill past them. I got a good wiff of it as I struggled up hill.

I still have every one of those Surgeon General's reports that came out under Dr. Koop. The one about harm from sidestream smoke said there have been 60,000 corroborated scientific studies studying some aspect of tobacco and impacts to health.

Let me tie this into an issue closer to home. The people, and the methods, used in the 1980s and 1990s to fight smoking restrictions, have moved on to denying climate change. One name you've heard recently is Herman Cain, who headed the National Restaurant Association back when it was in the forefront of anti-anti-smoking efforts.

As to hospitals: When both my children were delivered, the obstetrician and two delivery nurses went off in a side room right off the delivery suite to smoke a few. This was 1989 & 1993. Of course they put them out before moving on to taking care of women in childbirth, but both times, two of the people in the room smelled of fresh smoke.

I have a hard time accepting the notion that businesses should have to accommodate their employees' addictions. In a previous life I worked professionally downtown. Smoking was not allowed INSIDE the building. So all the smokers took their breaks outside. At least twice a day. On the clock.

So they were basically being paid for thirty minutes or so of standing around feeding their habit while I was expected to keep working.

(Geez, I guess I am pretty bitter about it. Ok. I'm over it now.)

I see signs in Oakland near Magee due to people trashing out the lawns, sidewalks & apparently even porches of homes across from the hospital. It's a shame that so many of the people who do smoke are so disrespectful. They're forcing their habit onto others.

America's most liveable city... if you like COPD.

AtLeasyMyKidsLoveMe's post reminds me of a story I heard. This guy worked downtown and was a nonsmoker. His coworkers would go out for two smoke breaks everyday, not including lunch. So he decided to go with them when they left. Instead of smoking, he sat on a bench away from them and read.

Well, someone complained and his boss called him into his office for a chat. The boss lectured him about wasting company time. He explained his logic to his boss. The boss was kinda dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. He continued to take his non-smoke breaks without any trouble.

^ I love this story!

One thing I miss about Kansas City and surrounding areas is the public smoking ban.

Going to a parade around here and trying to breathe is like taking your life in your hands if the wind is blowing along the line of spectators. I haven't seen numbers, but it seems like it's still 1 in 3 to 1 in 4, where national average is more like 1 in 5.

AtLeasyMyKidsLoveMe's post reminds me of a story I heard. This guy worked downtown and was a nonsmoker. His coworkers would go out for two smoke breaks everyday, not including lunch. So he decided to go with them when they left. Instead of smoking, he sat on a bench away from them and read.

Well, someone complained and his boss called him into his office for a chat. The boss lectured him about wasting company time. He explained his logic to his boss. The boss was kinda dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. He continued to take his non-smoke breaks without any trouble.

sounds like every restaurant I've worked at, except you wouldn't continue to enjoy that break. You don't smoke, you don't sit.

I've worked with line cooks who started smoking (and are now at 2 packs a day) just so they could get a 5 minute break from their 14 hour shift.