Saint Mary's Health Care Launches Tobacco-Free Workday Policy
Smoking remains the most important preventable cause of death and disability, and a growing number of employers are taking notice.

As a health care system dedicated to optimal wellness for its patients, visitors and employees, Grand Rapids-based Saint Mary’s Health Care started the new year by making all its campuses tobacco-free, effective Jan. 1, 2007. The new Tobacco-Free Workday…Every Day campaign prohibits the use of all tobacco products during an employee's work day, creating an environment that eliminates on-site exposure to second-hand smoke and lessens the possibility of tobacco odors on employees’ clothing.

To support the Tobacco-Free Workday…Every Day policy, Saint Mary’s Health Care provides numerous on-site support opportunities to help employees remain tobacco-free during their work shift.

To help employees make the transition, Saint Mary's Health Care developed a tool kit detailing the available resources for quitting or cutting back on tobacco use. The tool kit was distributed to employees prior to the Jan. 1, 2007 deadline, and employees were encouraged to develop a plan and take the steps they needed to start the new year able to work throughout their shifts without using tobacco products.

• Saint Mary's Health Care Tobacco-Free Workday...Every Day Tool Kit (available as an Adobe Acrobat PDF document)*

Return to top of page

Grand Rapids Adopts Clean Indoor Air Ordinance
Saint Mary's Health Care is a member of Tobacco Free Partners, a membership-based nonprofit organization serving west Michigan with treatment, prevention, and advocacy solutions. Founded in 2001, Tobacco Free Partners is the first organization established specifically to address tobacco issues at the community level. Tobacco Free Partners was instrumental in the October 2006 passage of the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance by the Grand Rapids City Commission.

Effective Oct. 1, 2007, the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance requires that most enclosed public places and businesses within the City of

Grand Rapids be smoke-free.  (Restaurants, bars, and private rooms within hotels/motels are excluded from this requirement.)  The ordinance is intended to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by reducing nonsmoker exposure to secondhand smoke — a known carcinogen.

Between the passage and implementation of the ordinance, Tobacco Free Partners and the City of Grand Rapids worked cooperatively to conduct a public relations campaign to educate the business community about their responsibilities under the ordinance.

For more information about the ordinance, including full ordinance language, background information for citizens and businesses, sample workplace policies, and sample building signs, visit the dedicated portal on the Tobacco Free Partners Web site at www.tobaccofreepartners.org/cleanair-ordinance.php.

*Please Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open, view and print this file once it has been downloaded. If you need a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, please click here.

Return to top of page
last updated: 10/02/07

Washington Square Building, 5th Floor · 109 Michigan Ave. · Lansing, Michigan USA 48913 Toll-Free: (877) 588-6224 · Fax: (517) 335-9397 ·