No Smoking on Hospital Property

Beezer

Beezer

Well-known Member
Open Rant...

Patients and staff have to walk a hundred yards to smoke on the street sidewalk at my local Hospital.

A few years ago when I smoked, my daughter was having life-saving surgery. It was 50/ 50 whether or not she would live. I stressfully lit up a smoke outside in the parking lot while awaiting her results.

A woman approached me...

Woman: "Sir. You aren't allowed to smoke on the Hospital Property.

Me: "My daughter is in surgery as we speak. She might not live. I don't care if I get a ticket for smoking."

Woman: "Oh..."

Then she turned and walked away. I haven't had a butt in over 6 months, but still feel if you are outside in the fresh air...and away from building entrances...it's nobody's bloody business if I puff on a legal product. And you are more likely to inhale a ton more crap standing waiting for a city Bus, than you are inhaling a tiny waft from a cigarette.

Rant Over
 

No smoking on the grounds of hospitals here where I live has been a thing for many years now.... but a few weeks ago I had to go to the hospital for tests, and there was 4 people standing right in front of the main doors, smoking and one, was actually leaning on the Big No Smoking sign... I had to physically walk through that smoke, literally choking on it.. diabolical...
 
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We learned in chemistry, that oxygen isn't flammable, but is necessary to support it. Still, I take what you mean.

At our main hospital, smoking is prohibited, but I've seen patients in a wheelchair and with a drip in their arm, smoking away. Plenty of nurses nip out for a quick smoke too. They should definitely know better.
 
Seems a little over the top if you're out in a parking lot away from the hospital building itself. What I normally see are signs around building that say No Smoking within a certain distance of the building; not that anyone is out there with a measuring tape though.

I no longer smoke and don't particularly like smelling exhaled smoke but I also understand a smoker's need for their hit of nicotine, particularly in a stressful situations which can often be the case around hospitals. I wouldn't have an issue as long as they're not right near the doorways.
 
The hospital I worked in for several years went from smoking in the rooms being OK....to smoking in the rooms ok IF you got permission from the hospital chaplain (I never did understand that one...) ......to being to be able to smoke outside the doors (you'd see a bevy of hospital-gowned patients out on the sidewalk wheeling their IV stands around).....to NO SMOKING ANYWHERE ON CAMPUS (and it was a huge campus).
 
jujube said:
The hospital I worked in for several years went from smoking in the rooms being OK....to smoking in the rooms ok IF you got permission from the hospital chaplain (I never did understand that one...) ......to being to be able to smoke outside the doors (you'd see a bevy of hospital-gowned patients out on the sidewalk wheeling their IV stands around).....to NO SMOKING ANYWHERE ON CAMPUS (and it was a huge campus).
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that's pretty much the way it went here with all our hospitals and public buildings , with the exception of a Chaplain..
 
Nathan said:
After I quit smoking instead of feeling "deprived" I viewed myself as having won my freedom from the deadly addiction. Once you let go of that "I can't smoke anymore" mindset you'll just not care about smoker's "rights".
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I have a co-worker, mid 30's trying to quit. I told her 'I know you won't know what to do with yourself without that cigarette for awhile, but once you get over that, you will be so grateful you quit. Been there, done that.' I hope she's doing OK on it.
 
Murrmurr said:
My pediatrician had 2 ashtrays in his office and several in the waiting room. I remember him and my dad lighting up when we were in his office discussing my tonsils. (I still have tonsils)
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Wow. Hard to imagine today. I also remember ash trays in grocery stores. I don't remember what year that went away in California. 70-ish?
 
Nathan said:
California's workplace smoking prohibition was enacted by AB 13 and became law in 1995

Some counties enacted their own smoking prohibitions earlier. San Bernardino County banned smoking in public buildings in 1985, except for in the county jails, where people were held involuntarily and presumed innocent(pre-trial). After all the legal challenges were exhausted smoking was banned in the jails in August 1991.
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Sounds like it's more complicated than I thought. I was living in Santa Cruz county and was young, so I would not have known of anything regarding how and when. I do remember the ban though and my mother making comments that some man was smoking in the grocery store after the ban.

But in the early 80's when I smoked, you could smoke in restaurant smoking sections and the mall. No no more!
 
I feel for smokers. Where I live they are the most despised minority group alive. However no nonsmoker is willing to breathe that crap. If they think we breathe enough crap already that we shouldn’t care. Well they’re welcome to thei opinion but that is why we have laws to settle disagreements without bloodshed.

If I’m out in the clean fresh air it matters all the more that no one spoil that. Maybe we need leper islands where the afflicted can go for their fix - far away from the rest of us. Smoking is not a victimless offense.
 
Nathan said:
California's workplace smoking prohibition was enacted by AB 13 and became law in 1995

Some counties enacted their own smoking prohibitions earlier. San Bernardino County banned smoking in public buildings in 1985, except for in the county jails, where people were held involuntarily and presumed innocent(pre-trial). After all the legal challenges were exhausted smoking was banned in the jails in August 1991.
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Oh yeah, that's got to be right because I remember ash trays in the waiting room when me and my 1st wife went to see her OB/GYN in 1976. We were there for a pregnancy test.
 
MarkD said:
I feel for smokers. Where I live they are the most despised minority group alive. However no nonsmoker is willing to breathe that crap. If they think we breathe enough crap already that we shouldn’t care. Well they’re welcome to thei opinion but that is why we have laws to settle disagreements without bloodshed.

If I’m out in the clean fresh air it matters all the more that no one spoil that. Maybe we need leper islands where the afflicted can go for their fix - far away from the rest of us. Smoking is not a victimless offense.
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You're safe from me. I smoke in my living room.
 
MarkD said:
I feel for smokers. Where I live they are the most despised minority group alive. However no nonsmoker is willing to breathe that crap. If they think we breathe enough crap already that we shouldn’t care. Well they’re welcome to thei opinion but that is why we have laws to settle disagreements without bloodshed.

If I’m out in the clean fresh air it matters all the more that no one spoil that. Maybe we need leper islands where the afflicted can go for their fix - far away from the rest of us. Smoking is not a victimless offense.
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I must work on Smokers Island then. I feel like non smokers are the minority. They hire someone and invariably they are a smoker. I've even said to a couple non smoking co-workers 'can't they hire someone who doesn't smoke?'

And all these smokers seem to become fast friends as they stand outside and blow smoke in each other's faces.
 
Whever I hear a person whine because they can't smoke in a workplace, I think, "Oh boo, hoo, hoo." Non smokers shouldn't have to inhale that foul stench. I've been working in nursing homes since 1996. Whenever I would see a staff member or a resident trying to smoke inside, I'd turn their butts in. Keep that dirty smelly habit outside where it belongs.
 
You're outside...in the fresh air...with no one around...smoking a legal product. Why is that anybody's business?

I just think some people feel better about themselves when they have a target. Dog walkers are the biggest hippocrites, though. Their pets crap all over the city and they have the gall to point their finger at smokers.
 

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