UCLA to put lights out on cigarettes today with ban on smoking around medical facilities

Kevin Williams, a senior custodian at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical center, sat near the bus stop at UCLA Medical Plaza on Monday, smoking a cigarette, aware that it would be one of his last on the medical facility’s campus.

Beginning today, a policy banning smoking in the medical and health sciences areas of campus, including the medical schools and some life science buildings, will go into effect ““ a process eight months in the making.

UCLA is the final member of the University of California system to implement the restrictions. About 60 percent of U.S. hospitals are entirely smoke-free, according to an October report published by the American Non-Smokers’ Rights Foundation.

“It’s time that we catch up to the rest of the country,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, associate clinical professor of psychiatry and founder of the UCLA Smoke-Free Champions.

The former policy restricted all smoking within health system and hospital buildings, but allowed smoking at a distance of 20 feet away from facilities.

Employees at the health system have approached hospital administrators about changing the regulations in the past, but the issue was not considered a top priority at the time, Fong said.

He attributed the recent shift in focus in part to other smoke-free transitions in the UC, as well as at the nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The UCLA Health System has spent significant time making sure that the policy is implemented effectively and strongly, said Erik Eggins, director of the health system’s safety department.

The safety department has worked closely with its counterpart at UC San Francisco to put the restrictions in place, referencing its implementation strategy and discussing the results of its transition, Eggins said.

Through the preparatory stages, there was also dialogue between the safety department, led by Eggins, and medical facility employees.

The primary concerns came from nurses, who were worried that there may be an increase in violent acts among patients who cannot have access to a cigarette and may suffer from nicotine withdrawal, he said.

UC San Francisco, however, did not show any evidence of an increase in violence, Eggins said.

There will be resources to help both patients and employees who wish to quit smoking, and nicotine replacements will be available to patients who begin to struggle with withdrawal symptoms.

Though Eggins said significant resistance to the change is not anticipated, employees must follow the restrictions as they would any other workplace policy.

Security officials will be provided materials ““ anti-smoking informational cards with resources to help smokers quit ““ to distribute to any violators of the measure.

Still, the policy has been opposed by some, including Williams. While the central issue is the inconvenience of the change, Williams said he feels there is also an imposition upon his individual freedoms with the ban.

“We should still be able to have some of our own rights,” Williams said. “It’s like they are trying to force a health issue on everybody.”

The step comes as part of a wider initiative toward healthy living within the UCLA Health System that has included ending service of french fries in health system cafeterias and encouraging employees to use the stairs at work.

There will be a UCLA Smoke-Free Kickoff today outside Tamkin Auditorium from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., where Fong and other members of his group will be answering any questions about the smoke-free policy and providing information about how and why to quit smoking.