25% of IDIBELL staff is smoker May 31 is the World without Snuff. The Smoke-Free IDIBELL program is aimed at workers ready to quit smoking. It is a free personalized program offered by the Tobacco Control Unit of the ICO.
To qualify for the Smoke-Free program IDIBELL, the smoker must be motivated to quit. According to Esteve Fernandez, Director of the Tobacco Control Unit of the ICO, “Once is determined, you should contact our Unit where we schedule a visit for free and we design a personalized plan. It determines the degree of dependence and motivation to learn if it is a good time or not to quit. If so, we study if medication is needed, such as nicotine patches or other, that is provided by free. Then we keep track of each case” According to the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) “quit smoking provides more health than the control of cholesterol or hypertension, smoking cessation takes more cost-effective than those in these diseases.”
Smoke-Free IDIBELL program commissioned a survey in early 2011 with the aim of knowing how many employees smoke and their degree of knowledge of this program. Their findings were that 25% of staff IDIBELL is smoker, being a daily habit for two thirds of the respondents. 40% of smokers stated no smoking during working hours while the rest done it outside the hospital: a quarter of smokers in the area where is allowed and 29% in any outdoor area outside the fence.
On the occasion of World No Snuff, Bellvitge Universitary Hospital (HUB) has organized the Thirteenth Week Without Smoke, with different activities such as information and measure levels of carbon monoxide and spirometry for users and companions, and a chat Information for professionals: “How I can stop smoking? Why I’m continuing to smoke? What do I have to do? Myths and difficulties of quitting smoking: How to overcome it?” given by the staff of the Tobacco Unit of the HUB.
Anna Riccobene Smoke-Free IDIBELL Program Tobacco Control Unit, Catalan Institute of Oncology ariccobene@iconcologia.net / Tel 93 260 71 47