Employee attitudes and smoking behavior at the City of Hope National Medical Center smoke-free campus

1025 Background: City of Hope National Medical Center (COH) in Duarte, CA has had a policy of allowing no smoking anywhere on the 100-acre campus since 1989. Because there is little published information on smoke-free campuses (SFC), we investigated the attitudes of employees at COH toward the SFC, and attempted to identify possible changes in the smoking behavior of employees. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted to all 2787 campus employees using both web-based data entry and scannable paper forms. Employees with network access were contacted by email and those without computers were contacted in person. Respondents were asked questions regarding their attitudes toward the SFC as well as their smoking history and current smoking behavior. Study participants were stratified by self-reported smoking status. A smoker was defined as one who had smoked more than 100 cigarettes and had smoked within the past 30 days. An ex-smoker was defined as one who had smoked more than 100 cigarettes, but had not smoked within the past 30 days. A non-smoker was defined as one who had neither smoked 100 cigarettes nor smoked within the past 30 days. Results: There were 1356 responses (48.7%). 100 (7.4%) respondents were current smokers, 242 (17.8%) were ex-smokers, and 1014 (74.8%) were non-smokers. Smokers and ex-smokers smoked a mean of 2.4 cigarettes less (95% CI 1.8 to 3.1, p< .0001) on workdays than on days off with evidence of a small amount of compensatory smoking (one cigarette/day). 61.6% of smoking employees believed that the smoke-free campus reduced their cigarette consumption. 42.2% of smoking employees quit smoking while employed at COH between 1989–2002. 92.6% of respondents supported the COH SFC policy. High acceptance was consistent across gender, ethnicity, job type, and educational level. Conclusions: City of Hope's smoke-free campus policy is strongly supported by employees, and may decrease cigarette consumption and facilitate smoking cessation among smoking employees. The smoke free campus may represent an effective strategy in prevention of lung cancer and other diseases caused by tobacco products. No significant financial relationships to disclose.