Under the Smoke-free IDIBELL program, offered by the institute through ICO’s Control Tobacco Unit to all workers who want to quit smoking, it has been performed a poll to assess what is the snuff prevalence among IDIBELL staff and if all workers know about this support program.
According to the survey, 25.6% of IDIBELL’s staff is smoker. For 67.6% of them cigarettes is a daily habit. Approximately 40% of smokers say they don’t smoke during working hours while the rest smokes outside the hospital: 26% to the area for smokers and 29% in any outdoor area outside the enclosure.

Quit smoking
Regarding the intention to quit, 45.8% of smokers plan to quit someday even if only 30% are willing to put a date and only 18% have thought about leaving tobacco before six months. The 34.4% of smokers would agree with “the program Smoke-Free IDIBELL effectively helps prevent the consumption of snuff to the workplace” but 57% of them have said they are not interested to receive help from the hospital smoking cessation, 35.7% believe that this help is not available and 7% even do not know about it.

Smoke-Free Program IDIBELL offers advice and, if necessary, nicotine replacement therapy (patches, gum) and other drugs that suppress the urge to smoke, and keeps track of each case. The nurse in the Tobacco Control Unit, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Anna Riccobene (ariccobene@iconcologia.net, 93 260 71 47) is available to all IDIBELL workers who want to leave tobacco.

The poll
The survey, conducted by the Tobacco Control Unit of the ICO, with the aim of determining the number of smokers and nonsmokers who are in the IDIBELL has been carried out during the months of January and February 2011 to 134 workers selected randomly at the institute . The survey will be repeated periodically to assess changes in the prevalence of smoking.