AMC Going Smoke Free in One Year

     SARANAC LAKE - On the anniversary of the 30th annual Great American Smokeout, nine hospitals in Northern New York, including Adirondack Medical Center, pledge to have tobacco free campuses in 2007.  Protecting and promoting the health of patients, employees and the community is the motivation for adopting this measure.
     "As a provider of health care and advocate of personal wellness, the decision to go tobacco free at Adirondack Medical Center is not only consistent with our mission, but vitally important in fostering an environment where patients, visitors, and employees are free from the adverse health effects of tobacco use," said Chandler Ralph, president and CEO of Adirondack Medical Center.
     AMC, which includes the main campus in Saranac Lake and health centers in Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Keene and Wilmington, will be going smoke free in November 2007. This will allow patients, employees and the community time to prepare.
       Newly participating hospitals will remove smoking areas from their grounds and add resources to help employees and patients quit smoking.  Each hospital will take its own approach to educating visitors and patients about their new rules in order to promote compliance.  Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone and Elizabethtown Community Hospital are already tobacco free and support their fellow Northern New York Hospital Association members in taking a stand to promote good health. 
      Along with Adirondack Medical Center, other hospitals joining in on this wellness initiative include Carthage Area Hospital, Claxton-Hepburn Hospital in Ogdensburg, CVPH Medical Center in Plattsburgh, E.J. Noble Hospital in Gouverneur, Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville and Massena Memorial Hospital.
     In justifying the need to promote health and wellness by discouraging tobacco use, hospitals officials cited the following statistics:
* Tobacco use causes one of every five deaths in the United States.
* Smoking-related diseases cost $150 billion annually not including the costs for disease caused by secondhand smoke.
* Secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States trailing only smoking and alcohol use.  An estimated 53,000 deaths occur annually because of secondhand smoke.
     "When I was a child - in a world in which most adults were smokers - I would see a great many physical changes in middle aged people of my parents generation that I thought were just 'getting old:' early graying of hair, wrinkling of skin with loss of underlying tissue, particularly in the face, loss of teeth, chronic back pain, loss of the ability to exercise and many more," according to Dr. Paul Seward, Vice President of Medical Affairs at AMC, "I have been amazed to discover, as part of a generation which largely does not smoke, how much of each of these problems are not 'aging' at all, but simply the signs and symptoms of chronic tobacco poisoning."
     Officials from the participating hospitals are united in the goal of creating a healthier environment for patients, visitors and employees.  They are motivated by the belief that this is the right thing to do.  No external agency is currently mandating tobacco-free campuses.
     For questions about going tobacco free or for information about upcoming programs to help people quit using tobacco products, call Adirondack Medical Center at 897-2274.

Policies & Terms - Laboratory Test Collection Information - Sitemap

	AMC is accredited by the Joint Commission. Click here to view the Joint Commission Public Notice.
	AMC is accredited by the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program.
	Adirondack Medical Center's Bariatric Program and Dr. Michael Hill have been designated as a Center of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.