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Services of Mead Data Central, Inc. PAGE 2 63RD STORY of Level 2 printed in FULL format. Proprietary to the United Press International 1984 April 26, 1984, Thursday, BC cycle SECTION!: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: Oregon, Washington LENGTH: 659 words HEADLINE: Health group bans smoking BYLINE: By TERRY FINN DATELINE: SEATTLE KEYWORD: Nwhor-Nosmoke BODY: Giving up smoking i's- as hard'for a company as it is for an individual. The difficulties of creating a smoke-free environment for workers concerne6 about inhaling ni'cotine fumes from their coworkers' cigarettes has produced a new group of experts: consultants who show firms how to quit. They are still a small fraternity, but they expect to grow as health problems to workers and the costs to businesses from smoking force more corporations to adopt smoke-free work places. The experts say they are needed because corporate smoki'ng bans and limitations are fraught with pitfalls for the unwitting employer. Some companies, noted one consultant, have suffered worse morale and productivity problems from their draconian smoking policies than they had before taking any action at all. " You can get yourself into a lot of trouble by making moral judgments about smoki% or by unintentionally turning one group against another, " said Robert Rosner, who developed a smoke-free policy for Group Health Cooperative of Seattle, the nation's largest cooperative health maintenance organi'zation. Rosner, who originally was the butt of antagonism from smokers at Group Health,, says corporate quitting must be planned and must involve smoking and non-smoki'ng workers. Ten months of planning, discussion and meetings with worker groups went i'nto the Group Health policy, which bans smoking in the cooperative's hospitals, clinics and offices by consumers and the organization's more than 5,000 staff members. Rosner had no experience in no-smokinq policies when the Seattle coop hired him. He soon found'there were few places to turn for help. "'The morning after I was hired I got out of bed and started calling all around the country and found almost no one knew more about than me. So I just " LEXISNEXISLEXIS EXIS'

r 'Senrices of Mead Data Central, Inc. PAGE 3 Proprietary to the United Press International, April 26, 1984 had to do it myself," he said. Putting the policy in place and getting it to work took more than sticking a notice in a pay envelope, he said. It took a combination of firmness and finesse. " The issue must be presented as a health and safety issue, not a moral one," Rosner said. " Smokers don't need guilt trips. Smokers, in fact, normally want to cooperate once they understand their habits are endangering the health of others. But you just can't suddenly expect to announce a policy and have people quit the same day.'" Rosner set up planning committees composed of smokers and non-smokers to decide how best to implement the policy in their areas at Group~Health. Four of Group Health's 16 medical centers already had begun voluntary no-smoking policies. Six others decided to implement the ban earlier than required. ''The key is not to make one group the enemy and give the other group the white hats,'' Rosner said. "I took some heat when I walked down the halls or spoke before employee groups. Now I even get a few pats on the back. " Some of the pats come from ex-smokers who quit because of the policy. Rosner made speeches, held question and answer sessions and developed an audio-visual presentationito educate workers. Group Health also sponsored stop-smoking classes. ''We aren't telling smokers they have to quit. We're telling them we want our buildings to be smoke-free for the health and comfort of everyone in them,'' he said. ""But at the same time smokers don't just stub out their cigarettes the same morning a smoking policy goes into effect. If someone did that to me, I'd be out there ripping down the no-smoking signs. " Violations of Group Health's no-smoking policy could lead to termination. " But we're not out to fire anyone over this,'' said Rosner. More than a month after the ban went into effect, Rosner reported things had gone surprisingly well. " We do have some people sneaking cigarettes in the bathrooms and stairwells, " he said. " We still have some problems. That comes with any policy, change. But the news is that we have not had the problems we anticipated. It's gone incredibly smoothly.'' W , N LEAXISNExIS"LExIs"MEXes"