Davenport Hospital joins tobacco-free club
From staff reports

BATH - Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital last week joined a growing number of hospitals in New York that have banned smoking both indoors and on campus grounds.

Hospital spokesperson Megan Johnson noted hospital personnel, visitors, vendors and patients had been allowed to smoke 150 feet from hospital doors. Beginning Thursday and coinciding with the American Cancer Society's 2007 Great American Smokeout, the hospital grounds became totally tobacco-free.

"New York state is going in that direction," Johnson said. "All of our bars, restaurants and stores are smoke free. It's a natural progression."

Johnson added the hospital is taking steps to ease employees' adjustment to the new, tobaccofree age, including making nicotine-replacement measures available. Patients also are offered counseling in smoking cessation, she said.

Thursday's Great American Smokeout was the 31st annual smoke-freet challenge from the American Cancer Society, which estimates half the United States is now governed by smoke-free laws.