Tobacco Documents Online

Services of Mead Data Central, Inc. LEVEL 1 - 52 OF 55 STOR'IES The Associated Press PAGE 213 The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associate6Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written,consent of The Associated Press. September 4, 1986, Thursday, PM cycle SECTION: Domestic News LENGTH: 296 words HEADLINE: Doctor Urges Hospitals To Ban Smoking DATELINE: BOSTON KEYW4RD: Smoking BODY: Hospitals should take a cue from industry and'ban on-the-job smoking by their employees, a physician said in a letter published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Michael J. Martin said a Seattle-based telephone company has obtained: impressive results from a smoking ban. "'It is time now for all hospitals to consider such a ban," he wrote. "Smoking is the greatest cause of premature death and disability in the United States, and it would be ironic if health care institutions let the general business community take the lead':in banning smoking in the work place.'Martin said Pacific Northwest Bell barred smoking by ilts 15,000 workers last October. During the first six months, no one left as a result of the policy, no lawsuTts were filed, and the workers'unions supported the measure. rw n, who i's on the faculty of the University of California in San Francisco, wrote the letter with Dr. Annette Fehrenbach of the phone company and Robert Rosner of the Smokinq Policy Insti'tute at Seattle UhiveTsit_ti. They predicted that the experience will almost certainly encourage other large companies to consider such a ban. "If widely adopted, these policies might have a dramatic effect on the nation's smoking habits," they wrote. "Theoretically, they would encourag e people to quit smoking by increasing the social pressure against it and by restricting the time available for it."At the Tobacco Institute, a cigarette manufacturers' trade group in Washington, spokesman Scott Stapf disputed the letter's conclusions. "Pacific Northwest Be11's experience is in no way typical of what's been observed in corporations on a national level," he said. He said unions generally oppose smoking bans that have not been agree6to through collective bargaining,. IM LEJilSNEXIS OLEX IsOFlEXES O