[Smoking by an Israeli general hospital staff, and attitude to smoking in hospitals. Are we in Israel ready to institute "smoke-free hospitals"?].
Smoking within hospitals is common in general hospitals in Israel. It has a strong negative educational impact, has a negative image and curing its ill effects help keep our hospitals busy. An anonymous questionnaire was answered by 128 members of our hospital staff (28%). Their distribution, according to occupation and sex was representative of the rest of our hospital staff. 19% of our workers are smokers, a much lower proportion than in our general adult population. The proportion was highest among maintenance (40%) and sanitary-help staff (36%). 23% of nurses and 15% of physicians were smokers. This situation is better than that among Italian or Japanese medical staff, but much worse than among North American medical staff. 75% of our workers who smoke declared that they smoke outside the room in which they work. 66% and 72% of the staff believe that hospital workers and visitors, respectively, should smoke outside hospital buildings. Only 19% of all workers do not believe that a "smoke-free hospital" is attainable. 34% believe that a "smoke-free hospital" is achievable, and 47% said that it is perhaps achievable. 86% of all the workers, and 41% of the smokers, expect the hospital director to implement an effective policy of enforcing the law limiting smoking within hospitals (and other public buildings) in Israel. 60% are willing to contribute actively to this effort. We believe these results strongly suggest that the time is ripe for implementation of the "smoke-free hospital" in Israel. This requires a strong and effective central policy, like that in the USA. We suggest measures that the Israel Ministry of Health take measures to successfully implement this policy.
Varsano
S
S
Dept. of Pulmonary Medicine, Meir General Hospital, Sapir Medical Center, Kfar Saba.
Hevion
G
G
Garenkin
M
M
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007557:Israel; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014789:Visitors to Patients
D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution