Smoking needs to stop, and it should stop here.  Second hand smoke causes approximately 7,330 deaths from lung cancer and 33, 590 death from heart disease each year.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 2.5 million people died from exposure to secondhand smoke between 1964 and 2014.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long-term exposure to secondhand smoke, such as exposure in a workplace, is associated with a 25–30 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease in adult non-smokers

The health of nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work is at increased risk. Secondhand smoke can cause heart attacks; even relatively brief exposure can trigger a heart attack, according to a report by the Institute of Medicine.

UVA Health System proclaims on their website - "We're committed to providing all patients, visitors and team members an environment where they can breathe easy — free from the harmful effects of smoking".

Despite the above statement crowds of patients, visitors and employee continue to gather daily outside the Medical Center entrance to smoke.  They do so surrounded by signage that reads "NO SMOKING Clean Air Medical Zone". 

The Commonwealth of Virginia Executive Order 41  prohibits smoking in all UVA facilities and parking garages and within 25 feet of any building entrance.

The concerns of continued exposure to secondhand smoke has been communicated  to UVA Health System administrators by way of email and employee council meetings for the past year with no visible action initiated by them. 

Their response has been to provide employees with a script asking that we approach patients and visitors,  “Hello, my name is XX, and I work here at the Medical Center. We have many sick patients who walk through this area; so, we don’t allow smoking here. I would appreciate if you would walk down to Jefferson Park Avenue to smoke”.

My experience following this script is that the majority of violators continue to smoke after the request and many of them become defensive and hostile causing the situation to escalate.

The enforcement of the Clean Air Medical Zone policy needs to be implemented by people in authoritative positions, such as UVA Health System security officers or law enforcement.  

By way of this petition, we are asking UVA Health System to take steps necessary to enforce their Smoke Free - Clean Air Policy to create the healthiest environment possible for patients, visitors and employees.