Markell's planned smoking ban elicits some grumblings

Publication Date: 2012-01-25

• Author:CHAD LIVENGOOD
• Publication:The News Journal

Charles Young, a 37-year smoker who quit seven months ago, doubts Gov. Jack Markell's planned ban on smoking outside state office buildings will have the desired effect of getting employees to kick the habit.

As with any form of prohibition, Young said, "they're going to do it anyway."

Still, the Division of Revenue employee recognizes the potential savings to taxpayers.

"I know since I quit, I'm more productive because I'm not out here smoking," said Young, who works in the Carvel State Building in downtown Wilmington, where dozens of workers huddle outside the entrances throughout the day to light up on their 15-minute breaks.

Markell is targeting their habit in his quest to slow the growing $1 billion annual health care bill for state workers, retirees and Medicaid recipients. Combined, they make up 40 percent of the state's population.

But the planned smoking ban, which can be implemented without a change in law, is already generating grumblings among state employees who smoke.

"If there's a designated area [to smoke], that would be fine,", Department of Justice employee Janea Righter said while smoking outside the Carvel building next to a sign instructing smokers to stay 25 feet away from the building. "I look forward to coming out for fresh air."

Several smokers interviewed this week outside the Carvel building declined to be publicly identified for fear of retribution. The smokers asked why they can't use the back of Freedom Plaza, a park area between the Carvel building and the Louis Redding City/County Building on French Street.

Markell doesn't plan to make life easier for tobacco-addicted state employees who routinely violate the 25-foot rule, especially when it's snowing or raining.

"The goal is actually to discourage smoking because smoking carries not just a physical cost to smokers but a fiscal cost to taxpayers," Markell spokesman Brian Selander said. "The goal of the governor's policy was not to simply move smoking out of doorways."

But employees like Righter say they'll just walk across French Street to Spencer Plaza to smoke. Most state workers get two 15-minute breaks plus a half-hour for lunch throughout their 7.5-hour work day.

Markell proposed making government campuses smoke-free in his State of the State address last week, describing the state as an enabler of a habit that is both unhealthy and "will heavily burden future generations of taxpayers."

But some workers complain that a smoking ban doesn't take into account that their smoking is a stress relief from life as a bureaucrat.

"Sometimes a cigarette gives you the peace of mind to step away," said a female tax collection worker who declined to be named. "It's going to take a whole large toll on the majority of people who work in this building."

Going smoke-free

Since Delaware's Clean Indoor Air Act of 2002 banned smoking inside workplaces, the state's largest employers have slowly made their outdoor campuses smoke-free.

Christiana Care Health System became the first Delaware hospital to go smoke-free, in November 2005. St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington and Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Rockland followed suit a year later, and Beebe Medical Center in Lewes did so in June 2007.

The state Department of Health and Social Services joined the movement in November 2007, making its mental health and nursing facilities smoke-free. About 45 patients at three long-term-care facilities were exempted from the smoking ban because of federal funding restrictions, DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf said.

DHSS implemented its smoke-free policy with little pushback from employees, officials said.

"There was no furor or uproar. People just have to walk a little further," said Michael Begatto, executive director of AFSCME Council 81, a union that represents state health care workers.

On Jan. 1, New Castle County Executive Paul Clark banned use of all tobacco products -- smoked and smokeless -- at three county government buildings. Smoking is still allowed at county parks and outside libraries and the City/County Building.

Delaware Technical Community College also went completely smoke-free on Jan. 1.

At Christiana Care, some workers leave the campus to smoke on their lunch break but are prohibited by hospital policy from smelling of smoke when they return to work.

New hires are warned of the policy, which is meant to promote wellness, said Audrey Van Luven, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Christiana Care Health System.

"We tell people we're a smoke-free campus, and if that's a problem, they may not want to consider employment with us," Van Luven said.

Employee surveys of the hospital system's 10,400 workers suggest fewer employees are smoking, Van Luven said, but increased productivity is hard to measure. "It's probably made things feel more equitable for nonsmokers who felt [smokers] took more breaks," Van Luven said.

Help in quitting

The Markell administration is working on changing the current tobacco policy, though the ban may not apply to state courthouses and Legislative Hall because the other two branches of government control those buildings, Selander said.

As they prepare to implement the smoking ban, state officials will be trying to enroll more workers in the DelaWELL tobacco-cessation program, which 766 employees, retirees and their dependents participated in during the 2011 fiscal year, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

At the Carvel building, some state workers suggested they could smoke by the Redding building -- which is co-owned by the city of Wilmington and New Castle County -- where smoking is still allowed. However, city officials are interested in crafting a joint smoke-free policy with the state and county.

"It's important that we send a clear message to employees and citizens through consistent policies," said John Rago, communications and policy development director for Mayor James M. Baker, who is a smoker himself.

County Councilman Jea Street, who smokes outside the Redding building before and after council meetings, said he supports a total ban at the state, county and city government complex.

"Even though I am a smoker, it's probably the right thing to do," Street said. "It's not going to make any difference in people quitting or not quitting."