European Union ban smoking in hospitals and medical centers

Author: S. Barbu

European Parliament seeks to ban smoking in every enclosed public are within three years. However, up to the present moment, just 10 EU-member countries, with Spain not in that list, are enforcing that smoking ban in a proper manner. So, the research is focused on demonstrating that the majority of hospitals have indeed become smoke-free, however, some of them fail to comply with bans comprehensively.

The research performed in 2005-2007 in 40 hospitals and medical centers across eight European states – Belgium, Spain, Romania, Italy, Greece, Germany, France and Austria - applied new technologies to identify the presence of secondhand smoke at six randomly selected sections of each medical establishment. The scientists assessed the rates of particles with a diameter of 2.5 micros (known as PM2.5) (?g/m3) or below in order to find out the amount of smoke in the air.

Asuncion Fernandez Sanchez, the lead researcher of the latter study and head of Madrid Institute of Oncology told the Associated Press that it has been necessary to estimate precisely the compliance with the regulation by occasionally assessing the levels of secondhand smoke in the air. In order to monitor the level of tobacco smoke, the leader of the research advises local enforcement agencies to launch special divisions that will perform the measurements and enforce the laws more strictly if that is needed.

Overall, almost 200 PM2.5 tests were carried out, with 35 of them in lobbies of the hospitals and inside of the main entrances, 35 in cafeterias, 20 in waiting rooms, 25 at the staircases, 50 in hospitalization units and the remaining 35 in other areas of medical centers

The findings of the research, which have been just published in the latest issue of Journal of Preventative and Clinical Medicine, demonstrated that the average rate of PM2.5 micro particulates in all the countries where the measurements took place was 3.0?g/m3, with 50 percent of the estimations being among 2.0 and 7.5?g/m3 (in Spain and Italy hospitals). However, twelve of the assessments (6%) showed levels of particles of approximately 25.0?g/m3, which is more than the limit established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in conformity with external and internal air quality regulations.

The majority of the countries where the tests have been carried out implemented comprehensive and strict anti-smoking policies in hospitals and medical centers during the research, hover, some of such policies permitted lighting up in specially designated places or actually in cafeterias.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/european-union-ban-smoking-in-hospitals-and-medical-centers-1234458.html

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