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Because whether you oppose or support smoking rights, I think we can all agree that the actions taken to eliminate smoking are not always 100% Right.
Recently, both of our local hospitals eliminated all smoking on their respective properties. Sounds pretty benign, right? Well, not so much.
First, both hospitals are ENORMOUS--if a person were to try and walk from the main entrance of the hospital to the nearest available spot where smoking is permitted, it takes 15 minutes to get there on foot, and it requires crossing heavy traffic over a 4-lane street.
Second, only one of them is a private hospital. The other is a public hospital complex owned by the state university.
Third, this ban had nothing to do with keeping non-smokers from being exposed to smoke. There were strict regulations in place before the blanket ban that barred all smoking within 150 feet of the hospital entrance. There were two ashtrays and two "smoke shacks" set up outside of that perimeter for people who wanted to smoke. They were well away from any place where non-smokers might be forced to go. Even the hospital's administrators came right out and admitted that the purpose of the ban was not to protect non-smokers, but to keep ALL people (even those who want to) from smoking. They claim that the hospitals' new policy is about looking out for patient health, first and foremost.
The result of this ban has been incredibly heartrending to witness. My Mom's been in and out of the hospital very frequently in the past few months, and I've spent a lot of time there with her. I've seen the annoyance of the patient family members who have to go to their cars and drive down the street to smoke a cigarette--but that's not the problem. The problem is with the patients who smoke. The most heartbreaking thing I've seen was an older man, frail-looking in his hospital gown, pushing his IV regulator down the street so he could go smoke. The guy had a bloody catheter bag hanging from his waistband, and it was 15 degrees outside. Hospital security officers got into their nice, warm Jeeps and drove slowly behind him as he struggled down the street, then sat there and watched him (I wanted to believe that they were looking out for his health, but their attitude later revealed that they'd been looking out for the hospital's expensive IV regulator.) He stood in the parking lot of the WIC/Health Department building down the street and smoked, then struggled his way back across traffic and up to the hospital. Nobody offered him a ride. Nobody helped him. The security guards resumed their places outside the main entrance (where I was sitting, waiting for my cab) and remarked between each other how "tired" they were of "babysitting these stupid smokers."
And that was not the only time I saw something like that. It was repeated off and on the entire time I was there. Some sick/injured person heads off down the street in a hospital gown, tubes, IVs, and all, and security follows along to watch out for the equipment--nevermind the patient. Over and over again it happened.
Do I expect the anti-smoking zealots to care? No. I know that in your minds, ANYTHING is fine so long as it thwarts smokers. But practical reality is this: smoking is incredibly addictive, and smokers are not just going to "quit". Because they aren't going to just quit, things like this will continue to happen. In this particular case, sick and injured people are now being put in direct and immediate danger (as opposed to smoking, which is generally a long-term, cumulative danger) in order to appease those who just hate smoking period and want it to stop.
If the purpose behind the ban was to look out for patient health, then the ban has failed. It's simply replaced an old set of long-term dangers with a new set of immediate and acute ones. It's not hard to foresee patients keeling over on that long walk, or getting hit by a car trying to cross traffic. Those things are far more dangerous in the short-term than the cigarette would have been. Those acute risks are MUCH more likely to affect a patient's health negatively than the ban is to affect a patient's health positively. But nobody cares about that.
It was honestly a nightmare for me. I was literally in tears. My domestic partner (who has never smoked a cigarette in her life, but who also sees how awful this situation is) wants me to write a Letter to the Editor of the local paper to describe what I saw, but I am hesitant because I know what the responses will be. "Well just quit smoking!" If it were that simple, people would have already done it. You can't have a rational discussion about a complex issue with people who refuse to see anything other than black and white. Would the nation be a better place if all smokers lost their addictions tomorrow and stopped smoking forever? Sure. But that is NEVER going to happen. The best we can hope for is to keep the next generation from starting, and try to be as compassionate and sensible as we can when it comes to dealing with the current generation of smokers in the meantime. The anti-smoking brigade is very good at supporting the first part of that statement...but absolutely dismal at recognizing the need for the second part.
Maybe I'll write that letter after all. Someone needs to, and nobody else seems to give a damn whether or not "these stupid smokers", many of whom are seniors and ALL of whom are vulnerable, get hit by a car or keel over from the long walk and the exposure to the cold.
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