Development and Introduction of a Comprehensive Tobacco Control Policy in a Canadian Regional Health Authority
CDC STACKS serves as an archival repository of CDC-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other public health information authored or co-authored by CDC or funded partners. As a repository, CDC STACKS retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
i

Development and Introduction of a Comprehensive Tobacco Control Policy in a Canadian Regional Health Authority



English

Details:

  • Journal Article:
    Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Background

    Tobacco control policies in health care settings are necessary to protect patients, employees, physicians, visitors, and volunteers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. This report documents the process of developing and introducing a comprehensive tobacco control policy in one Canadian regional health authority.

    Context

    Capital Health (CH), a health authority that has 30,000 employees and serves 1.6 million people, is responsible for 18 hospitals and primary care facilities, 33 continuing care facilities, 29 public health locations, and 9 community care facilities. CH recently determined that it needed to revise its tobacco control policy because its facilities had different directives regarding tobacco use, some of which did not reflect the best current knowledge about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke.

    Methods

    The new smoke-free policy needed to be developed and executed within a narrow time frame, which required careful planning as well as the support of patients and CH staff members. An essential part of the new policy was the prevention of nicotine withdrawal among people required to undergo involuntary tobacco abstinence. The plan also included an integrated screening, intervention, and referral process designed to optimize health benefits for patients and staff members who smoked, as well as for those who did not.

    Consequences

    CH decided to close all smoking rooms (including those in psychiatry, palliative care, geriatrics, eating disorder, and tuberculosis units), to ban smoking in outdoor areas, to stop all sales of tobacco products in CH facilities, to require smoke-free environments during home visitations, and to reject funding from the tobacco industry.

    Interpretation

    By implementing a consistent ban on indoor and outdoor smoking, CH is contributing to a comprehensive tobacco control policy that is arguably a regional health authority's most profound opportunity for health promotion.

  • Subjects:
  • Source:
  • Series:
  • ISSN:
    1545-1151
  • Document Type:
  • Place as Subject:
  • Location:
  • Volume:
    4
  • Issue:
    2
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF-254.90 KB]

Supporting Files

You May Also Like

Checkout today's featured content at stacks.cdc.gov