The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) has come out in support of the leadership of Russellville Hospital for instituting a policy that will make the hospital’s entire campus tobacco-free beginning this Monday.
Russellville Hospital joins more than 3,400 hospitals, healthcare systems or clinics nationwide that have instituted 100 percent smoke-free or tobacco-free campus policies. Under the new policy, no tobacco use of any kind will be permitted either indoors or outdoors on hospital property.
“This is an important step for the health of the entire Russellville community,” said Ginny Campbell, ACS CAN’s government relations director for Alabama.
“This policy will protect hospital employees, patients and visitors from the dangers of secondhand smoke and create a healthier hospital environment for everyone.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 24.3 percent (or 893,100) adults in the state of Alabama are smokers, and as many as 7,500 adults in the state die each year as a result of their own smoking.
“Tobacco-free policies like that being implemented by Russellville Hospital will ultimately save lives,” Campbell said.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem.
ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority and gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard.
For more information, visit www.acscan.org.