From Military.com:
“VA Hospitals to Ban All Tobacco Use, Vaping “
All Department of Veterans Affairs health care facilities
will be completely smoke-free by October, with all forms of tobacco use,
including e-cigarettes and vaping, banned from facility grounds, officials
announced in a news release Monday. The policy change, first published by the
Veterans Health Administration in early March, ends the use of designated
smoking areas or shelters at VA hospitals. "Although VA has historically
permitted smoking in designated areas, there is growing evidence that smoking
and exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke creates significant medical
risks, and risks to safety and direct patient care, that are inconsistent with
medical requirements and limitations," officials said in the release.
"Accordingly, VA's Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has collaborated
with key stakeholders to update and recertify the policy to be consistent with
the department's commitment to Veterans and the community." The change
applies to everyone at VA facilities, including patients, visitors, volunteers,
contractors, vendors and staff, officials said. In situations where the VA
facility is co-located with a Defense Department hospital, the VA's new policy
will be followed only on VA-controlled grounds, the policy notes. DoD hospitals
often still allow smoking in designated areas. Both the VA and Defense Department
offer smoking cessation assistance to patients -- a sensible benefit given
that, until 1975, the Pentagon still included cigarettes in rations issued to
troops. Commissaries and military exchanges also continue to sell tobacco and
tobacco products. Although federal law requires that it be sold for prices
comparable to those available off base, the price point used by commissaries
and exchanges is based on a market snapshot and often ends up being lower than
that of off-base competitors. About 14 percent of active-duty troops consider
themselves occasional smokers, according to data released by the DoD early this
year. According to a 2018 study from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, roughly three in 10 military veterans used some kind of tobacco
product between 2010 and 2015, and tobacco use among veterans significantly
outpaces that among civilian peers.
^ I have been at a hospital (although not a VA one) with
someone who is a smoker and when they -
the hospitals – ban smokers from smoking (even in designated smoking sections
away from non-smokers) the patients are more likely to discharge themselves
from treatment so they can have a cigarette. The decision to receive treatment
or have a cigarette is not an easy one, but it is unprofessional for doctors
and hospitals to place their patients in that situation. I am all for doctors
and hospitals telling their patients about the dangers of smoking and for them
to suggest and give gums, patches, etc. to help people to stop smoking and even
for making them smoke in designated smoking sections, but to openly
discriminate against them is just plain wrong. ^
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