Published: November 24, 2008 03:55 pm      

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE: Saint Joe says ‘no’ to smoke

Smoking ban becoming hot topic in Laurel County

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

Thursday, in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout, Saint-Joseph-London went smoke-free.

Sentinel-Echo Staff writer Tara Kaprowy has written a series of stories on the topic of smoking and local discussions about a smoking ban in public places such as restaurants.

The stories will be published in three editions of The Sentinel-Echo as follows:

Part 1: Saint Joseph-London’s decision to go smoke-free and interviews with two women who have smoked for years.

Part 2: The debate over a local smoking ban, including how local business owners see the issue.

Part: A look at two neighboring states and other Kentucky cities that have smoking bans.

Contact Tara Kaprowy at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com



As of Thursday, smokers will be asked to butt out their cigarettes, spit out their chew and stuff their snuff in their pockets while at Saint Joseph-London. The hospital and its campus are going entirely smoke free.

Patients, visitors and staff will not be allowed to smoke anywhere on hospital property, a rule that even bans smoking in one’s car if parked in a Saint Joseph lot.

“This initiative is a further step in making all our hospitals healthier for our patients and communities and a healthier workplace for our employees,” Public Relations Coordinator Tonya Lewis said. “All seven hospitals in our new system are going tobacco free at the same time — Nov. 20, 2008.”

The day was chosen to coincide with the Great American Smokeout, a day during which smokers are urged to purge their cigarettes.

Saint Joseph’s 925 employees were informed of the new rule in May. Hospital patients and visitors are informed by letter during registration.

During the tobacco-free transition, the hospital is offering help to staff.

“The Free and Clear Quit for Life Program is offered free of charge through the hospital’s employee benefits program,” Director of Healthy Communities June Rawlings said. “Cooper Clayton Smoking Cessation classes are offered for hospital employees at the Laurel County Health Department on an as needed basis. The Employee Assistance Program offers individual counseling sessions at no cost to hospital employees. Chantix prescriptions are offered to employees. The prescription is paid for by hospital insurance. The employee is responsible for a co-payment.”

The hospital gift shop will also sell patches, nicotine gum and lozenges.

Of the 126 hospitals in Kentucky, 52 will be tobacco free by Jan. 1.

“The role of the hospital is to treat the sick but it’s also to promote positive and good health care for their citizens,” said Elizabeth Cobb, vice president of health policy for the Kentucky Hospital Association. “So they’re an obvious model for the community in promoting improved health and, as we all know, the use of tobacco greatly affects Kentuckians and is a key component to a lot of our health care problems in the state. The hospitals feel this is an important step to take in helping to promote positive health care for their citizens.”

Cobb said the transition to tobacco-free generally goes relatively smoothly.

“I think there has been a lot of support from the staff and the community because they see the important role that the hospital has in promoting health,” she said. “As with any policy like this, there’s challenges both in getting the word out about the new policy and supporting the patients and visitors and staff who chose to continue using tobacco products.”

Two of those visitors stood smoking outside Saint Joseph Monday. They were firmly against the ban.

“My opinion is if a man wants to smoke, he should be able to,” Kevin Hicks said.

Marcella Sutherland agreed and added she did not feel the ban would act as a deterrent for smokers.

“I don’t think they’ll smoke less,” she said. “That won’t make a person smoke less just because they have to go outside of the boundaries.”

Data collected at Somerset’s Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, which went tobacco free Jan. 1, 2008, shows otherwise, however.

At Lake Cumberland, 23 percent of the 1,200 employees were smokers. Since the transition, Susan Wilson, director of marketing and community relations, said some have quit.

“And some have drastically cut back,” she claimed previously.

Wilson said in May the tobacco-free transition went well.

“We’ve been very pleased,” she said. “Of course, it’s a big change so we’ve spent a lot of time on education. But we’ve been very pleased with how well people have made the adjustment.”

“Even some smokers have said this is the right thing to do,” she added.





WOMAN COMMITTED TO QUITTING



Life will change for Loretta Mills Thursday. And while she sits in her basement office in Saint Joseph-London, she feels both dread and excitement.

At the same time the hospital is going smoke free, Mills has decided to quit smoking

For good.

“I really am committed this time,” she said. “This is reality for me: I’m not going to be able to smoke while I’m at work. I don’t want to spend eight hours a day stressing about smoking. It’s going to be easier not smoking and not having to deal with it.”

Mills, a credentials coordinator, has been a smoker for the past 24 years.

“I was probably about 16 years old when I started,” she said. “My dad smoked. I grew up with it in the house. It became the norm.”

She smokes about 30 cigarettes a day, lighting up her Doral Lights in the morning on her way to work, after she eats lunch, and when she gets home.

It’s something she’s not happy about, but doesn’t know how to overcome the addiction.

“I’ve tried quitting three times in the past,” she said. “I probably made it a week the first time. About three months the second time. And two weeks the last time. I think I just caved. It was lack of strength to do it I think.”

But a few things have changed in Mills’ life since she tried to quit the last time. First, her husband stopped smoking last year. Second, as of Thursday, she can rely on the built-in control of not being able to smoke at work.

“If I can’t smoke in the house and I can’t smoke at work, if I can manage to quit for eight hours at a time, then I can quit,” she said. “The more inconvenient I find that it is, I find the less cigarettes you actually smoke.”

But Mills — wisely, doctors say — is not planning on quitting cold turkey. She plans on relying on nicotine patches for about two months.

She still expects the coming weeks will be rough, however.

“It’s that agitated feeling you get from not smoking,” she said. “It’s a stress. I don’t know how to better explain it. It’s the desire to smoke and the stress you get from not smoking when you’re nicotine addicted.

But Mills is focusing on the advantages of breaking the addiction. One of them is financial — she spends about $30 a week on cigarettes.

“I plan on spending that extra money on my wardrobe,” she laughed.

Getting the approval of her family is another — especially when it comes to her 15-year-old son Dustin.

“He absolutely despises the cigarettes,” she said. “He complains. He’s been a deterrent for both me and my husband.”

She’s also looking forward to a smoke-free environment.

“It’s that my house won’t stink, my clothes won’t stink, my car won’t stink,” she said. “You’re so immune to it when you smoke all the time that you don’t notice it that much.”

Mills has been anticipating Saint Joseph going tobacco free for the past year — she was invited to be on the hospital’s Tobacco Free Committee in spring 2007, an invitation she didn’t necessarily welcome.

“Honestly I dreaded it because that was an unpopular decision among my peers,” she said.

And Mills admits it still is.

“No one is really celebrating the fact that we are going smoke free because it’s going to be difficult,” she said. “But if that’s the policy, I’m going to conform. It’s as simple as that.”

And after serving on the Tobacco Free Committee, Mills feels it’s a good move for the hospital.

“One of our mission’s goals is building stronger and healthier communities,” she said. “It’s sort of hypocritical that Saint Joseph builds healthier communities, but they’re harboring a place to smoke and permitting patients and staff to smoke on their properties. Taking that stance, had that happened 40 years ago, I probably wouldn’t have been a smoker.”

But now that a stand is being made, Mills hopes her co-workers will be understanding.

“I really would like to see the non-smokers be supportive of our smokers,” she said. “Anytime there is ever a crisis, we’ve always rallied together. I realize this is a self-inflicted misery, but nevertheless this is an addiction. We really need to support each other.”



HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE PROUD TO BE SMOKE FREE



When Kathy Butler walks into a room, her perfume radiates around her. It’s one she’s relied on for years — Eternity by Calvin Klein. But now her signature scent smells even better — it no longer has to mask the smoke that once clung to her clothes.

After 30 years of smoking, Butler quit Sept. 21, 2007.

“It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. “But I don’t smell like smoke. My car doesn’t smell like smoke. Smoke’s not in my hair. There are so many more pros than cons. Overall, this is the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Butler, an executive assistant at Saint Joseph-London, started smoking when she started going to Cumberland College at age 18.

“My roommate smoked and back then you could smoke in your dorm rooms,” she said. “She would say, ‘Here, take a few draws,’ and I would. That’s how it started.”

Soon, Butler was smoking a pack a day.

“I enjoyed it thoroughly,” she said. “I kept justifying it by saying this is the only vice I have.”

In 1988, Butler and her husband, Edd, decided to quit together. They were successful and stopped smoking cold turkey for five years. But at age 43, Edd was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Butler says now it was probably her husband’s death that caused her to start smoking again.

“He was the love of my life and I lost him at such an early age,” she explained. “He asked his physician if he could smoke for the last six months of his life. The doctor said, ‘You do anything you want to.’ Then I started out the same way, lighting his cigarettes and I started again.”

But last September, concerns for her health and pressure from her grandchildren prompted Butler to try quitting again.

“Elijah, the youngest, would say, ‘Why do you want to die? Do you want to see your husband?’” she said. “They would say, ‘If you love us, you shouldn’t leave us.’”

Butler decided to go on Chantix, a drug that reportedly works by blocking the effect nicotine has on the brain. For two weeks, Butler fought to smoke fewer and fewer cigarettes each day.

“I would not go through that first two weeks for smoking again,” she said. “The first two weeks were the worst. If you can go the first two weeks, you can quit.”

Finally, on Sept. 21 she went the entire day without a cigarette.

“After two weeks the Chicken Festival started and I was volunteering at the booth,” she said. “I’d gone all day and I was going to let myself smoke one. Then I said, ‘Now why would I smoke a cigarette after I had gone all day?’ So I kept putting it off. Then I got home and said, “OK, I’ll go to bed.’ That was the day I stopped.”

Butler said the Chantix helped her to a degree.

“But as far as is it being a miracle drug? No,” she said. “You still have to be disciplined.”

In fact, Butler said she’s had to break the habit in countless ways.

“Everything was a hurdle the first time,” she said. “Even the first time my grandchildren came over after I’d quit. And last week it was the first time driving from here to Knoxville without having a cigarette. I said, ‘The last time I did this I was a smoker.’”

Butler kept herself in check by avoiding temptation.

“I slept a lot when I quit smoking,” she said. “When it got so bad, I would go to bed. I stayed in places you don’t really smoke anyway. And I got my teeth cleaned when I quit. I cleaned my car.”

She also relied on her faith.

“I could not have made it without God,” she said.

But Butler purposely tempted herself too.

“I kept half a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in my kitchen cabinet,” she said. “I would take them out of the cabinet and look at them and say, ‘No, you’re not going to win. You’re not going to let that little cigarette beat you.’”

While Butler said she still has cravings, she expects Saint Joseph-London’s smoking ban will help her.

“Walking through fresh smoke, it’s tough a little bit,” she said, adding she’s in full support of the ban.

“By being a health care facility, I think they should because that’s what they’re all about,” she said. “But do I feel for the people who smoke? Oh yes.”

Overall, Butler said she feels better after quitting. Though she’s gained 17 pounds — “Unfortunately, food tastes a lot better when you don’t smoke,” she admitted — she doesn’t get out of breath as easily and “I’ve noticed I can hold notes longer when I sing at church.”

And on the one year anniversary of her quit date, she was again at the World Chicken Festival. At one of the booths, she noticed a leather purse patched together with pretty fall colors.

“I went home and I said, ‘You know what? This is really a turning-around point for me.’ So I bought the purse,” she said. “I justified that purse. Sometimes it’s important to sit back and say, ‘You did it.’”