UCSF to Become Nearly Smoke Free by July 1

In a major step to provide a safe and healthy environment, UCSF will significantly reduce on-campus smoking areas to protect human health. With the exception of only a few, small designated areas for patients and visitors, all University-owned or leased property will be smoke-free effective July 1. Chancellor Mike Bishop made the announcement through an email to the campus community on May 31, the annual World Health Organization's "World No Tobacco Day." "This year, the focus is on the role of health professionals in tobacco control," Bishop noted. "In light of our mission as a health sciences campus, we must take a leadership role to protect the health of our faculty, staff, students, patients and visitors." "I hope that a spirit of respect for the health of all university employees will be reflected across campus as we implement this revised policy," Bishop continued. "I invite your cooperation and your commitment to this important effort." UCSF's revised smoke-free policy is available here. Joining other tobacco control advocates at a World No Tobacco Day event at UCSF, David Kessler, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs, spoke about the revised smoking policy and other UCSF measures to curb the single greatest public health threat. See video in:
Quicktime | Real | Windows Media As health care professionals we are in a unique position to intervene in tobacco addiction, which is the leading cause of preventable death in this country," Kessler said. "We also have an obligation as an institution." The deadly toll from tobacco is staggering: • 440,000 people die in the US every year • 4.8 million die worldwide every year • 10 million deaths are estimated by 2030 • 8.6 million will be disabled from tobacco-related diseases in the US alone. Duty to Intervene Among many other efforts to reduce tobacco addiction to prevent diseases and deaths it causes, UCSF is: • Offering a curriculum that teaches students that nicotine addiction is a disease that can and must be treated and reflects the latest science on smoking cessation, nicotine addition, and tobacco control; • developing new ways to help students become proficient in assessing and treating people who smoke; • expanding the RX for Change program to equip clinicians with the tools and knowledge they need to help patients stop smoking. Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy, talked about the success in launching and expanding the model Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation. See video in:
Quicktime | Real | Windows Media The interactive, hands-on curriculum - posted on the web - incorporates evidence-based research and emphasizes behavioral change. It was peer-reviewed by tobacco control experts, including UCSF's Stanton Glantz and Neal Benowitz.

See Video: David Kessler: Quicktime, Real, Windows Media Mary Anne Koda-Kimble: Quicktime, Real, Windows Media Steven Schroeder: Quicktime, Real, Windows Media (Download QuickTime, Real or Windows Media players.)

Since its inception in 1999, the Rx for Change program has been required coursework for all pharmacy students in California, reaching about 700 students annually. Since 2000, the program also has been required training for UCSF medical students, and since 2003, for UCSF dental students. UCSF nursing students received the program for the first time in 2004. Today, the program is being taught in 89 schools nationwide, said Koda-Kimble, who congratulated faculty members Robin Corelli, Karen Hudmon and Lisa Kroon for their hard work on the program. Steven Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF, says studies show most of the 46 million current smokers would like to quit. But without assistance, less than 5 percent are able to stop smoking. Schroeder says most patients appreciate and expect advice from health professionals. Unfortunately, too few practitioners take the time to talk about smoking with their patients. See video in:
Quicktime | Real | Windows Media Despite the remarkable RX for Change, clinicians still do a lousy job at helping people quit smoking and that includes even right here at UCSF," said Schroeder, citing statistics from the Joint Commission on Health Care Accreditation. Effective ways to stop smoking, he noted, are to raise the price of cigarettes, mandate clean indoor air policies, broaden counter-marketing materials to show the deadly consequences of smoking and counseling patients in the office, clinic, pharmacy or hospital. Acknowledging that health care providers are often short on time, Schroeder said, at the very least they should ask whether their patients smoke and refer those who smoke to telephone quit lines. The toll-free line in California is 1-800-NO-BUTTS. For his part, Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF, urged the UCSF Medical Center to give hospitalized patients who smoke cessation counseling and treatment. Smoking cessation shouldn't be viewed as preventive medicine, it's a therapy for nicotine addiction, Glantz explained. The data from years of studies on smoking and second-hand smoke conducted at UCSF and elsewhere warns against the many dangers of tobacco. "Both mainstream smoke - smoke that is exhaled into the air by smokers, and sidestream smoke - smoke that comes directly from the burning tobacco in cigarettes - contain the same harmful chemicals as the smoke that smokers inhale," Bishop noted, citing a 1986 report by the US Surgeon General. "In fact, sidestream smoke produces even larger amounts of some cancer-causing substances. The Surgeon General also found that the simple separation of smokers and non-smokers within the same air space may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure of non-smokers to environmental tobacco smoke." The World No Tobacco day event was organized by a committee led by Gina Intinarelli, who will graduate soon from the UCSF School of Nursing with a master's degree in health care policy. "Nicotine is a powerfully addictive substance and, as health care professionals, we need to recognize and confront tobacco use," Intinarelli said. "After all, it is the leading cause of death in our country." Source: Lisa Cisneros

Related Links

Rx for Change UC-Sponsored Smoking Cessation Programs UCSF's Revised Smoke-Free Policy World No Tobacco Day at UCSF presentation (PDF)