Eastern Long Island Hospital Goes Smoke-Free

in Greenport will become entirely smoke free beginning July 5.

In a press release issued this week, the hospital announced in a collaborated effort with the Suffolk County Department of Health that it will prohibit tobacco use across the entire campus. 

"As a healthcare provider, we believe it is our responsibility to promote good health habits and discourage habits that increase health risks," said Paul Connor, president and CEO of Eastern Long Island Hospital.

The hospital prohibited smoking in several departments, and as a certified addiction treatment center sanctioned smoking only in specially designated areas outside. Eastern Long Island had not adopted a campus-wide smoke-free environment, however, because of opinions that a tobacco ban would be harmful to patients in the in-patient mental health unit.

About a year ago those opinions dissipated with new appointments in the mental health unit, leading to a campus-wide smoke-free initiative.

"From a medical perspective we were enabling their dangerous addiction," said hospital Medical Director Dr. Lloyd Simon, referring to the patients in the mental health that some had claimed found solace in being able to smoke outside. "If you tell these addicts that it is OK to smoke, you are…treating [these patients] as second-class citizens, if we know that statistically many of them are going to die from cigarettes."

Dr. Simon said that every patient is offered the treatments provided through the addiction center, including medical treatment, patches, gum, along with support groups. 

"The best way to treat [addicts] is to make the campus smoke free," Dr. Simon said. "No patient has to see someone else smoking."

Dr. Simon is also medical director of the addiction treatment unit at the hospital, and he personally provides addiction services to hospital employees who may struggle with the ban.

During a similar effort last November, the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council launched a campaign across Long Island to eliminate tobacco use on hospital grounds. The group expects more than 30 hospitals to commit to a smoke-free environment by the summer of 2011.

Eastern Long Island Hospital is the second hospital on the East End to ban tobacco entirely, joining Southampton Hospital, which became smoke-free in 2010. in Riverhead prohibits smoking in the hospital, but not on the entire campus.

Besides the health-risks associated with tobacco use as well as second-hand smoke, smoking on hospital grounds can be a security issue, according to the press release. Cigarrettes can be a fire hazard as hospitals house a significant amount of flammable materials.