Join McKenzie-Willamette - and quit tobacco.

Byline: YOUR HEALTH By Dr. John LeBow For The Register-Guard

This year, the Fourth of July will not only celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but will also mark the culmination of the Declare Your Independence From Tobacco campaign at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center.

As of July 4, 2007, the campus will become entirely tobacco free, with no use of tobacco permitted within the hospital and surrounding offices, or on the grounds. (Inside, the facility has been smoke free for more than a decade.)

As part of the task force assembled to prepare for the transition, I was able to draw upon my 30 years as a physician dealing with tobacco-related issues from all angles.

At the hospital where I interned, I vividly remember walking down the hallways and seeing clouds of smoke coming from patient rooms during evening visiting hours. Another hospital I worked in had a cigarette machine in the front lobby.

In those early years, I often worked with physicians who were smokers. Happily, there has been a gradual evolution to the present, in which I don't personally know a doctor in this community who is a chronic smoker.

In my practice, I've dealt with every tobacco-related health problem on innumerable occasions and continue to do so. I find my patient population to be very knowledgeable of these diseases. All of them wish that they didn't smoke or chew. The vast majority of them want to quit.

However, the reality is that the use of tobacco is a powerful addiction, and not an easy one to overcome. Most people `quit' many times before they are successful.

To encourage my patients who are struggling to quit, and to illustrate the strength of tobacco addiction, I often tell my patients my `Dave Story.'

Dave was my patient when I was practicing in Denver, prior to moving to the Eugene-Springfield area. Dave is definitely a member of my patient Hall of Fame.

To say the very least, Dave had lived on the wild side for most of his life. But now he wanted to quit smoking and was having extreme difficulty.

He put tobacco addiction into perspective for me with one statement: `Doc, I've been an alcoholic, a heroin addict and a cocaine addict, and when I figured out those things were bad for me, I quit - but I can't quit smoking!'

Very simply, tobacco addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such. Those who try to quit may succumb to the addiction several times before they finally succeed in stopping tobacco use.

However, I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that no single decision by a patient trying to improve his or her health and quality of life could possibly supersede that of opting for tobacco cessation.

All of us would want to help a family member obtain treatment for a disease, especially one that not only affects a primary individual but, through second-hand smoke, can have numerous consequences for family members and friends.

I'm grateful that McKenzie-Willamette is joining the long and growing list of hospitals across the nation to eliminate tobacco use from the facility and its environs.

In so doing the medical center provides a role model for the citizens of the community we serve. For community health care institutions, there really is no other acceptable stance.

My sincere hope is that when McKenzie-Willamette becomes tobacco free on this Fourth of July, instead of anger and feelings of harassment, those who use tobacco will recognize that this action is really an intervention by concerned health care providers, which may ultimately be the first step towards a healthier life for tobacco users and their friends and family.

I invite my fellow physicians and the community to join me in applauding, as McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center becomes tobacco free on Independence Day, 2007.

Dr. John LeBow has been in family practice in Lane County for nine years and serves on the McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center Board.

As of July 4, 2007,

the (McKenzie- Willamette) campus will become entirely tobacco free ...

HELP TO QUIT

Call (800) QUIT-NOW or contact one of the following organizations:

American Cancer Society: [phone], www.acs.org

American Lung Association: www.lungusa.org

National Cancer institute: [phone]

Oregon Tobacco Quitline offers free patches when available; call [phone] for English; [phone] for Spanish