Nurses and smoking

[ashleyh_84]

Do you think it is ok if a nurse or a doctor smokes? Because i know when i go to the doctors office with my boyfriend and he tells him that he smokes that he gos on and on of how he shouldnt be smoking at all. But then we go outside and see nurses smoking and such!! So what do you guys think?

[brendamyheart]

To those of you who continue to smoke and use tobacco, thanks for the future job security.

You are welcome. :D

[brendamyheart]

Its a personal choice. It doesnt matter what job or profession a person has, we are adults and make an informed choice. Sometimes the only time I have had a break, is a 5 min smoke break, and have never had anyone complain, not even the non smokers. Maybe thats because when the nurse in charge, if I have noticed that a staff member is a bit stressed or has been very busy, I have always made sure they take a short break, and maybe go and make themselves a drink. I have always tried to get to know my colleauges, so that if they have any problems, either with work or at home, then I can judge if they need a break, or they could come to me and ask. This then works both ways, as when I was having problems coleagues would often say to me to go and have a quick smoke break and they would call me if I was needed. There was never any problem with "I am not looking after the patients while you have a smoke". Everyone worked well together.

You are very kind in this message.

[brendamyheart]

second hand smoke

january 17, 2006

by frank seltzer (mowee)

ok it has finally come down to this. a couple in boston could be evicted from their apartment for smoking. a boston housing court jury so ruled on june 10th. their ruling came despite the lease allowed for smoking. the jury found that the smoking (about a pack of cigarettes a day for each of them) violated a more general clause banning any nuisance; any offensive noise, odor or fumes; or any hazard to health. alas the jury never said which it was but my guess is odor. we're in the era of legislating or lawyering comfort.

i just wish this type of jury was around when i used to regularly get trapped in elevators with several mary kay ladies. their perfumes were obviously applied with an industrial sprayer and they all conflicted making a totally noxious smell. but i digress.

second hand smoke, or ets (environmental tobacco smoke) has been branded a killer. nevermind, that actual first hand smoke may not be the killer the cdc and surgeon general say. (remember just this year the cdc had to revise the number of deaths from obesity from 365-thousand downward to around 25,000 as published by the american medical association.)

in regards to smoking, the cdc says about 442,000 americans died each year from smoking during the years 1995-1999 (link). however, i defy anyone to find one death certificate which lists smoking as the cause of death. the cdc says it is heart disease, cancer etc. but that isn't the whole list. cervical cancer is attributed to smoking by the american cancer society (link). unfortunately, last year a vaccine for cervical cancer was tested successfully. seems the cancer is mostly the result of a virus (link). whoops. which is it a virus or smoking? actually a doctor friend has this theory of linkage...women who smoke tend to drink more. women who drink more are more sexually active. more sexually active women tend to get the std virus. viola.

further, when considering smoking, the cdc says have you ever smoked? well when the surgeon general made his initial report on smoking in the 60s...what percentage of the population answered that question in the affirmative (think ww2, lucky strike goes to war, cigarettes on almost every tv show.) might have skewed the stats? probably. another way to view the stats is that if a smoker is obese, has high cholesterol, diabetes and heart problems, never exercises and dies of a heart attack, the government classifies it as a smoking attributed death. (again though the death certificate will say heart attack.)

ok so how about ets?

well most of the data on ets comes from an epa study commissioned during the clinton administration, after it classified ets as a "group a carcinogen" in 1993. most of the research was shoddy and in fact a federal judge threw it out in 1998. the judge said "epa publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun; excluded industry by violating the act's procedural requirements; adjusted established procedure and scientific norms to validate the agency's public conclusion..." in other words, it made up the results. the world health organization did a study finding no statistically significant risk in ets. in the who report it showed that there were relative risks of 1.16 and 1.17 or a 16 and 17 percent increase of getting lung cancer from ets. but what was lost in the data was perspective. the national cancer institute's own guidelines say "relative risks of less than 2 [i.e. a 100% increase] are considered small...such increases may be due to chance, statistical bias or effects of confounding factors that are sometimes not evident." to put this in perspective, the relative risk for getting lung cancer from drinking whole milk is 2.4. that is 140 percentor 8 times more than from second hand smoke.

there are plenty of chemicals in cigarette smoke...not nearly as many in cigars. but these chemicals exist in many everyday products. cigarettes produce up to 700 micrograms of formaldehyde in sidestream smoke (coming off the cigarette). but gas ranges release 20,000 to 40,000 micrograms per hour! further, formaldehyde is in carpets, coat fabrics, wood bonding and finishing products.. the normal stuff in buildings is around 40-50 micrograms of formaldehyde per cubic meter. ets rarely exceeds 40 micrograms per cubic meter. a "safe" level is formaldehyde is 1500 micrograms per cubic meter, or about 37 times more than cigarettes produce.

but ets is serious right? well osha started studying the issue in 1994, trying to set an acceptable level of ets. it gave up in 2001. that was also the year that the oak ridge national laboratory did a comparison of a non-smoking restaurant and the non smoking section of a smoking tavern. the result? the levels were virtually identical. but how can there be smoke in a non smoking restaurant? cooking gives off smoke. when oak ridge in 2000 tested saliva of restaurant workers in smoking restaurants, they found their levels of nicotine and other substances considerably lower than proposed osha standards. maybe that's why osha gave up.

there is a lot of material on smoking and second hand smoke at forces.org also at www.davehitt.com/facts/. dave runs through the science of these studies and gives you more studies.

so why is there this rage for ets? well think of it...if you could smoke everywhere, then you wouldn't need nicotrol, zyban and other stop smoking programs and drugs. there is a profit motive at work. drug companies (johnson and johnson for one) are funding the initiatives. so are the american cancer society, american lung association and american heart association. they raise money to do it. the more money they raise...well you get the idea.

finally there is this. on november 11, 2003, the university of houston headlined a release..."an apple a day may keep the doctor away...but so may a cigarette." the findings were based on the fact that stress is among america's top health problems and nicotine has a beneficial effect on memory, especially stress-induced memory impairment. the researcher says this could help with parkinsons and alzheimers.

this is quiet long but i would like comment from those that think smoking should be banned and is the "cause" of increased cancer rates

good info!!

[brendamyheart]

I see your point, but I disaagree with something, a nonsmoker doesn't have the right to HARASS a smoker, but they do have the right to either move away from the smoker or to ask the smoker to put it out or to please move away. As a fairly new smoker I understand the not wanting to be around the smoke, I always ask the other person if they mind I smoke or I just wait. :)

I am a smoker. Have quit more than I can count. If I go to a restaurant that has a smoking section and with a person that does not smoke I ask for the non smoking section. When I am at a break outside, I never smoke when someone is eating. I stand away. I respect the non-smokers rights. I am aware of the health hazards of smoking. I hope to quit again sometime, but not now. It is a crutch. Stress would kill me before smoking would!!!! I respect the responses here. I wish I did not smoke. I know all the health hazards!! :uhoh3:

[brendamyheart]

hey bro nice to see ya again. however i could not disagree with you more. read this Search LungUSA - American Lung Association site pretty comparable right. and that was done in 96. there has been a big push to do another but lots of resistance and was suppost to come out this past december. 10 years now bet those numbers have gone up can see it in the hospitals around my area. so you car drivers effect me, after all "In 1996, transportation sources were responsible for 47% of pollutant emissions" so by your rational "I have every right to annoy continually you, or any other driver that causes me to involuntarily invite carcinogens into my system!":rolleyes:

so i am guessing here, most everyone has the right annoy anyone just about anytime.

i say if its big issue for those in your town, state, ban it in public places period or get the hospital to ban it during work hours, like with alochol. if its not an issue and its allowed deal with it why annoy anyone? move to a area or hospital that does not allow it. lobby the right people to change if you want but dont infringe on their rigths, it is illegal to harass not smoke.

You have made a great point!!!! :bow:

[brendamyheart]

its not a matter of you should know better. its a matter of tormenting the individual for following the rules. its not the individual smoker that said its ok to smoke. we should not give an attitude to someone that is following the rules. not that you do. i just think its wrong to chastise a person for doing what they have been told is ok to do. your or whoevers gripe is with the legislators and or administration of where you work, not with the individual. smokers smoke where they are told it is ok to do so. am i a bad person who diservers to be disrespected and have my credibility stripped because i am following the rules.

funniest part of all this is i am not a smoker, not even a ex smoker. i understand what you are saying, but still think it is just wrong to say anything to the smoker, who is a actual person with feeling and everything. sure if they smoke in a area that should not be smoking ok get on them but, if they are smoking in the area they were told was their area to smoke so be it. take it up with administration not that individual. and in no way should anyone show disrespect towards them simply because they dont like the current rules. just because i am one of the only ones that is standing up for the smoker donsent mean i am in the minority that thinks its ok for them to smoke, look at the pole results.

Good point!!

[ns lpn]

Before I was a nurse I was just a person. I started smoking at the age of 8 (scarey - yes) now as a nurse knowing all the risks and seeing all the effects I wish I never smoked, and continue to try and quit. However I am still a person, and dispite many attempts to quit I still smoke. I don't complain when a co-worker who doesn't smoke takes their break and I never leave the floor at unschedule break times to smoke. I once heard a co-worker jokingly say "I should smoke, at least then I'd get a break" and I thought why don't they take their break anyways? I certainly wouldn't stop them, somedays I don't get a break and I don't blame anyone.

Doctors and Nurses should not smoke - ideally no one should but reality is people do smoke and despite all the new laws, education and medical studies done - people continue to smoke. Someone once told me it's an addiction but most people today seem to think its just a choice. All the new anti-smoking advertisement no longer says "smoking" is stupid it says "the people who smoke are" and I personally find it offensive that the general public supports that, I don't call someone who is addicted to meth stupid, I don't call the overweight person stupid and yet I apparently am.

[Justhere, BSN, RN]

I once heard a co-worker jokingly say "I should smoke, at least then I'd get a break" and I thought why don't they take their break anyways? I certainly wouldn't stop them, somedays I don't get a break and I don't blame anyone.

Usually when you hear this comment it is because the non-smoker is feeling like the smokers are getting too many breaks. I have worked with smokers that every time you turn around they are gone on a smoke break. Working in the nursery it is kind of hard and you got crying babies left and right and your help just jumps up and leaves to go smoke. Its the same on the floor it never seems like a call light goes off until you are left all by yourself and the other two nurses you work with leave for a smoke break. I had two nurses I hated to work with when I worked the floor, because they always left together and were always gone longer than the 15 minutes. One was real bad to leave when one of her IV's was due to be changed or PCA pumps. Then I would have to explain to her patient that I couldn't refill her PCA until her nurse came back because you had to have two nurses to change the PCA meds at our hospital.

[ns lpn]

I personally never leave the floor if I know someone will be inconvienced by it. However when and if I can take my scheduled breaks I do - because I smoke perhaps but mostly b/c I need off the floor for a few minutes to recharge some days I just get a cup of tea and a b/r break. As far as the call bells going just when the other staff leaves - I think that's Murphy's Law happens to myself alot as well. The girls you work with just sound inconsiderate - I work with some of those too but not all of them smoke.

[etzie]

Take it from a smoking LPN, we say that because we have to. Actually I would prefer to tell them that it is your body and you are old enough to make your own decisions.

[etzie]

Good info!!

That was great info. My hats off to you.

[RN 4 U]

Personally i really do not think that is is professional to be in the healthcare field and be a smoker. It is a contradition to your profession.And please do let me see you in all whites one minute and the next minute you're outside smoking, that is a big contradition. But then,who am i to tell someone that if that is what they want to do, then so be it. They just need to realize that if they don't quit that they too might be someones patient someday.