MUHC aims for 'smoke- and vape-free environment'

Smoking and vaping will be banned at all four McGill University Health Centre hospitals under a new policy announced Wednesday.

The MUHC ban goes further than the province's anti-tobacco legislation, which only bans smoking inside buildings and at least nine metres from hospital entrances.

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"Creating a smoke- andvape-freeenvironment is congruent with our mission as a leading academic health centre," NormandRinfret, theMcGill University Health Centre's president and executive director, said in a statement Wednesday.

The MUHC saidit plans to phase inits smoke and vape-free policy at all of itshospital sites, startingNov. 1.

"Having smokers on the ground is not a good message to the city or to thepatients who are there,"SeanGilman, director of theMUHC'ssmoking cessation clinic, toldCBC'sHomerunlater in the day.

Temporary smoking shelters will beinstalled at each site for at least six months as a transition measure. For patients with severeaddictions, nicotine replacement therapy will be offered to relieve withdrawal symptoms, Gilman said.

"As long as we offer this, patients will be comfortable," Gilman said. "Andhospitalization is a great time to approach these smokers."

Vaping out, but could help smokers quit

Although thenew policy also forbids vaping on hospital grounds, Gilman said it could eventually bean "excellent tool" to help people stop smoking, at least in the cessation clinic.

"But as an institutional policy, we're not promoting it," he said. The hospitalwill wait until the World Health Organization releases a study on vaping before taking an officialposition on the practice.

The health network isspread out over four hospitals in Montreal:

• The Glen Site, which is made up of five centres, including the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Children's Hospital, the Montreal Chest Institute, theCedars Cancer Centre and theResearch Institute of the MUHC.
• The Montreal Neurological Hospital.
• The Lachine Hospital.
• The Montreal General Hospital.