Hospitals across the United States are demonstrating their commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of their communities by restricting the use of tobacco products on their campuses.  United Hospital Center (UHC) is committed to the health and safety of our patients, guests, and employees, as UHC will expand a ban on all tobacco products at all of its campuses beginning December 3 to become a totally smoke-free environment.

 

“For more than a decade, hospitals across the country have banned smoking inside their facilities; now they are taking the next step by banning the use of all tobacco products and expanding the areas where their use will not be permitted,” said Stephanie Smart, RN, vice president of nursing at UHC. “Tobacco use in and around hospitals pose many health and safety risks.”

 

The leading cause of death and disease in West Virginia continues to be tobacco use with high prevalence for both smoking and spit tobacco. Almost 4,000 West Virginia residents die each year from tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. Since 1964, the year of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, more than 155,000 West Virginia residents have perished in the preventable pandemic of death and chronic disease caused by cigarette smoking.

 

Despite the fact that the consequences of tobacco use are well-known to West Virginians, residents continue to use tobacco in alarming numbers. Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of premature death and disease.