Missouri Hospitals Are Tobacco Free

Missouri has one of the highest smoking rates in the U.S.— 23.9 percent of adults smoke, and 24.8 percent of high school students smoke. As a result, tobacco use causes or contributes to 9,700 deaths in Missouri each year. Health care costs to Missouri citizens from the use of tobacco total $1.96 billion.

Effective September 1, 2006, St. John’s Mercy joined most Missouri hospitals in a statewide ban on the use of tobacco products in their facilities and on their campuses. Although Missouri hospitals have banned smoking inside their facilities for more than 10 years, a new regulation by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services bans the use of all tobacco products and expands the areas where their use is not allowed.

This ban includes all doctors’ buildings and surrounding parking lots on each hospital campus. This summer, hospitals finalized plans to implement tobacco-free campuses, including signage, promotion of smoking cessation programs and support for their co-workers, patients and visitors.

Smoking Cessation Resources from St. John's Mercy

• St. John’s Mercy offers smoking cessation programs throughout the year and referrals to other resources in the St. Louis area. For more information, call St. John’s Mercy Respiratory Care at 314-251-4811 or our Cancer Answer Line at 314-251-6400 (toll-free 1-877-569-6400).
  
  
• Auriculotherapy: A New Way to Stop Smoking
  Some smokers are discovering an effective new way to quit smoking. Auriculotherapy is an alternative treatment option that involves electrical stimulation of specific points on the ear. Auriculotherapy is based on traditional acupuncture points, but it delivers an electrical current through a small probe to stimulate ear points that are believed to relate to anxiety, the lungs, the brain and nicotine addiction. Auriculotherapy is a painless procedure with no known side effects. During a typical auriculotherapy treatment, each ear point is stimulated for approximately 60 seconds, and the treatment lasts about 30 minutes. Ear seeds are then placed in the treatment points to help patients after they leave the office. Some patients have stopped smoking after the first treatment, and some have quit after multiple treatments. The St. John’s Mercy Center for New Health Options and the David C. Pratt Cancer Center recently acquired an auriculotherapy unit and have begun smoking cessation treatments. To learn more about how auriculotherapy could help you or someone else kick the habit, call the David C. Pratt Cancer Center at 314-251-6571, or the Center for New Health Options at 636-207-2200.

Additional Resources

The Missouri Tobacco Quit Line

National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet

Quit Smoking Action Plan