WATERBURY HOSPITAL PREPARES TO BECOME A SMOKE-FREE CAMPUS BY NOVEMBER 2009 

Waterbury Hospital has launched a year-long campaign to encourage all employees and visitors to refrain from smoking on hospital grounds. The launch of the hospital’s campaign entitled Let’s Clear the Air! Start Now. Stop Smoking! coincided with the American Cancer Society’s 33^rd Annual Great American Smoke out which was held on November 20, 2008. 

Employees will be offered a wide range of programs, counseling and other opportunities to help them quit smoking in time for November 20, 2009 -- the day that smoking will no longer be permitted anywhere on hospital property.  

The hospital’s smoke-free initiative is similar to those adopted at other hospitals in the state and across the country. According to the Connecticut Hospital Association (www.cthosp.org) 10 hospital throughout Connecticut are currently smoke free campuses, while 15 additional hospitals (including Waterbury Hospital) will be smoke-free by 2009 or 2010. 

After November 20, 2009, any employee or visitor who is spotted smoking anywhere on Waterbury Hospital grounds will be asked to extinguish their smoking materials. The new rules apply to all areas of the hospital campus, including parking lots and satellite medical buildings. 

We invite you to learn more about the hospital’s smoke-free campus initiative by clicking on any of the links to the left of this page. For more information on Waterbury Hospital’s Let’s Clear the Air! Start Now. Stop Smoking! campaign, please cal 203-573-6717.