Published: November 25, 2009 03:33 pm      

Witham celebrates tobacco-free campus

Witham Hospital had no problems enforcing the tobacco-free policy Thursday, Nov. 19, the first official day for the campus, said Tammy Rabe, director of marketing and public relations for Witham.

“We’re very excited,” she said. “There’s been a constant flow of communication, so I think it was expected and nobody was taken by surprise.”

There were many health-promoting activities to celebrate the transition, such as exercise classes by Anytime Fitness and Lebanon Sports and Fitness, body mass indexing by Anytime Fitness, and health literature available to the public — even pieces of candy for smokers to grab instead of cigarettes.

“We really approached this as a total wellness package,” Rabe said. “We’re off to a great start.”

Herschell Servies, M.D., chief medical officer at Witham and Boone County health officer, said the transition was long overdue since Witham was one of only three hospitals in the state that hadn’t gone tobacco-free.

“Yet, this decision is about much more than saying we’ve done it,” he said. “We’re becoming tobacco-free for the health and well-being of our patients, employees and community.”

Thursday was especially significant to Stacy French, pre-registration employee at Witham. French had been a smoker of 35 years when she learned the campus was going tobacco-free. And that was just the push she needed to quit smoking.

“It was due to knowing that I had to (quit) by today,” French said Thursday. “And I’m glad most of the time.”

And Nora Day, a data specialist with Witham, is on her way to quitting, too. She participated in Witham’s free tobacco cessation classes and is down to two or three cigarettes a day. She was a pack-a-day smoker.

“I felt a little picked on at first,” Day said. “But I quickly realized this was what I needed. This has become a good thing for me.”

Smoking and using tobacco products is now prohibited in all Witham buildings and outside on all the property grounds.