UCSF, a leading health sciences university, will become entirely smoke-free on Thursday, Nov. 20, coinciding with the day of the Great American Smokeout.
All designated smoking areas and smoking shelters will be removed from UCSF locations. The move to become 100 percent smoke-free follows smaller steps that began on July 1, 2005, when UCSF adopted a policy that prohibited smoking in all UC-owned or -leased spaces, except in designated smoking areas for patients and visitors.
Chancellor Mike Bishop, MD, made that announcement during the World Health Organization’s annual 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.”
To help employees make the adjustment to the all-out ban on smoking, UCSF has scheduled a town hall meeting on Thursday, Sept. 11, from noon to 1 p.m. in Health Sciences West, room 302, on the Parnassus campus, where staff can raise any concerns and ask questions.
Employees who want to quit smoking have time to take advantage of the smoking cessation classes offered by the Tobacco Education Center. UCSF Medical Center employees who complete the four-week smoking cessation course will be reimbursed $55.
In addition, employees are eligible for a reimbursement of up to $75 for medications to treat tobacco dependence that are not covered by insurance. More information is available here.
Research has found that implementing a smoke-free policy at medical centers is associated with a decrease in the prevalence of regular cigarette smoking from 16.7 percent to 13.8 percent and with a smoking cessation rate of 22.5 percent among employees in the first year alone.
