HEALTH WORKERS TO BE SMOKE FREE?

The message from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is clear: "Health professionals should not smoke" www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/publications/en_tfi_mpower_brochure_o_page2.pdf

"Doctors and other health-care workers are most effective in assisting patients to quit when they serve as role models by not smoking themselves. Their effectiveness increases further if they are visibly involved in local and national tobacco control activities."

"In some countries, a high proportion of physicians smoke – particularly male physicians. In addition to setting a deadly example for their patients, doctors who smoke undermine tobacco control messages and policies."

Many countries have adopted strategies for enforcing and assisting the public to quit smoking. An increasing number of countries are considering banning smoking in public places, including hospital grounds, but there has yet to be widespread regulation around employment conditions in health care.

That is unless you work in Baltimore.

"Anyone who wants a job next year at Anne Arundel Medical Center — whether as a surgeon or security guard — will have to prove they don't smoke or use tobacco."
articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-07-05/business/bs-bz-no-smoking-hiring-policy-20140705_1_anne-arun...

"Anne Arundel Medical Center, like a growing number of health systems, universities and other businesses, will require a urine test for nicotine use for all applicants starting next July."

"Hospital representatives, who say their primary mission is "living healthier together," say the new rules grew out of two years of researching ways to prevent tobacco-related diseases — and hearing out those who questioned the policy's fairness and legality. The hospital hopes that health care costs will decrease over the long term, but that was not the primary driver, said Julie McGovern, the center's vice president of human resources."

"We're doing this to improve the health status of our community," McGovern said. "It's a serious obligation we have ... and one of the important steps we can take to be a role model."

Not everyone agrees with the new measures.

"These things are extremely intrusive," said George Koodray, assistant U.S. director of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, an organization that advocates for smokers' and property rights. "I think they really overstep. They really, in a lot of respects, defy so many principles that we believe in as Americans."

"What these folks are saying is they're going to deny a person's livelihood due to the fact that people are consuming a perfectly legal product that does not necessarily adversely affect their health," he said."

Does Koodray have a point? While imposing conditions about not smoking at work may be justified, is it right for employment law to creep into people's private lives?

Should health professions have the right to freely choose how they live outside of work hours or is the collective public health message more important?

What do you think? Time for our government to consider a smoke free policy for our health work force?

Image: www.thefix.com