Smoke-Free Work Environment Begins Jan. 1, 2007

Health network reminds employees, patients and visitors of the new policy; Offers help to those who want to quit

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (Nov. 16, 2006) – Cindy Buervenich, insurance representative for Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG), started smoking in her early teens. As the years passed, she became more and more addicted to nicotine, smoking three packs a day as an adult. In the morning, she would wake up coughing and hacking. On bad days, she would tell herself that this was the day she was going to quit smoking. During the 40 years Buervenich smoked, she unsuccessfully tried to quit smoking 10 times. So, what finally did motivate the 57-year-old Allentown woman to stop smoking for good? LVHHN’s new smoke-free work environment policy did.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, the new policy will prohibit smoking by employees, patients and visitors outside all owned and leased LVHHN buildings, including business and physician offices and parking lots. First announced in November 2005, the policy was phased in during 2006. Currently, smoking is only permitted in designated areas. Additionally in 2006, the health network’s insurance plan began offering tobacco cessation services free of charge. This coverage will continue indefinitely. Services include face-to-face or over-the-phone meetings with a tobacco treatment counselor and nicotine replacement therapy, including the patch, gum or medication, at no cost to the person attempting to quit smoking.

Since the smoke-free announcement was made one year ago, Buervenich is one of more than 100 people working at an LVHHN owned or leased property that signed up for LVHHN’s Tobacco Treatment Program. Thirty percent of these participants are smoke-free today. “It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it,” Buervenich says. “I don’t wake up coughing anymore, and my sense of smell has improved. When I’m walking into work, I enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread coming from the nearby General Mills plant. I never noticed it while I was smoking.”

To communicate the plan with employees, LVHHN created a smoke-free tool kit to outline the policy and inform employees of the tobacco cessation services available to them. Marc L. Steinberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and co-director of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Tobacco Dependence and Psychiatric Disorders Program, was invited to speak to LVHHN leadership about strategies for a smooth transition to a tobacco-free environment. Monthly articles appeared in CheckUp, LVHHN’s employee magazine, offering quit smoking tips. To inform the public, signs were installed near all LVHHN buildings entrances.

Elliot J. Sussman, M.D., LVHHN’s president and CEO, knows many people will benefit from a smoke-free environment. “One of the best ways to ensure the well-being of our community is by confronting the nation’s leading cause of preventable deaths: smoking,” he says. “Committed to building a healthier community, it’s imperative that we, as the region’s leading health care organization, set an example for other industries throughout the Lehigh Valley to help curb the used of tobacco and protect others from secondhand smoke.”

LVHHN became the first major employer in the region last November to announce the implementation of a completely smoke-free work environment. LVHHN is the area’s largest employer with more than 8,000 workers.

Dr. Sussman told a news conference at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest & I-78 in Allentown that ‘volumes of research’ shows smoking is a major risk factor for cancer, heart and lung disease. Smoking causes an estimated 440,000 premature deaths in the U.S. annually. Each worker who smokes costs employers $1,760 in lost productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenses.

Sussman encouraged the community to help keep LVHHN tobacco-free and said the network is available to help any smoker quit for good. Anyone wishing to take advantage of LVHHN’s Tobacco Treatment Program should call 610-402-CARE.

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