No Smoking

I work at Children's Hospital in Aurora and our entire campus is smoke and tobacco free.  There is no smoking anywhere on campus and signs are posted ALL over.  I love it.

So when I smell smoke anywhere on campus, I know it's a rare thing and that someone nearby is breaking the rules--and I'm not above letting them know that.  It's easy to tell them that they can't smoke on campus and why: we have babies and kiddos that are being treated for many different illnesses, many of which are respiratory, and it is especially harmful for those patients to be exposed to smoke and tobacco.  It even states in our employee handbook that it is a violation of policy for employees to smell of smoke while working.

We don't have designated smoking areas.  You just can't smoke on campus.  Did I mention that I love it!?

So this morning when I took the shuttle over to the main hospital from our administrative building across the street (where we watch people from our windows who walk almost to the limit of the property to smoke but usually stop right in front of the "no smoking" sign to light up), I was shocked to see someone standing right outside the parking garage smoking.  As the van pulled up, I looked at the man and shook my head.  When the van stopped and I opened my door, he started walking away.  And I chased him--belly and all!

I said, "excuse me, sir?" (Nothing).  I kept going, "sir? excuse me!"  He turned to me and I said, "I'm sorry, but you can't smoke here."  He looked me right in the face and through some thick accent (English is not his first language) he said, "I'm not smoking."  Umm, what?! I pointed to the burning cigarette butt in his hand and said, "What?!" I repeated myself, "you can't smoke here."  He gestured to me as if to offer me a cigarette, "You?" he offered, looking right at my pregnant belly.  I laughed and said, "No! You need to go across the street," and I pointed, waving to the end of the hospital's property.  He turned and started walking, and I did the same.

Now, I'm sure he had no intention of going all the way to the end, his butt was almost completely burned down, but it just makes me laugh at the ignorance and selfishness of people. 

I approached another guy once who was on the phone outside the main entrance of the hospital.  I had no problem interrupting his conversation to inform him of the rules of our smoke-free campus.  He tried to hide the butt behind him and told me that "it was out."  NO, it wasn't.  So I stared him down, and when he went back to his phone conversation telling the other person on the end of the line that this (beep)ing person was telling him that he couldn't (beep)ing smoke, I held my stance and stared some more.  He turned to me and yelled, "what?! It's out!"  It wasn't, but I shook my head and walked away.

It's just not worth it for the sake of the kiddos inside that building.  I'm sure that last guy was the dad or relative of a sick kid, and I feel for him.  And maybe that's his way of dealing with the stress of why they're here in the first place.  But we have rules, and for many reasons, those rules need to be followed. 

As an employee of the hospital, while I may not be clinical and actually treat the patients, I feel like it's the least I can do for them to keep them from smelling the cigarette smoke.  I'd want the same for my kids.