Effort underway to ban smoking on Veterans Affairs sites across U.S.

Lyon’s Place II, on the Dayotn VA Medical Center campus, is a 55-unit affordable housing building for low income senior citizens. LISA POWELL / STAFF

Lyon’s Place II, on the Dayotn VA Medical Center campus, is a 55-unit affordable housing building for low income senior citizens. LISA POWELL / STAFF
Health News
By Barrie Barber
March 23, 2017
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An Ohio congressman has targeted smoking at Department of Veterans Affairs medical clinics and campuses nationwide.

U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Iraq war veteran and a doctor, has introduced House legislation that would immediately ban smoking inside VA health care clinics and hospitals and outdoors within five years.

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“Exposure to second hand smoke puts veteran patients at unnecessary risk,” Wenstrup, R-Cincinnati and chairman of the subcommittee on health, said in a statement.

If enacted, the legislation would likely impact the Dayton VA Medical Center, which has five smoking “shelters” outdoors and “open air” smoking elsewhere outdoors on the sprawling nearly 400 acre campus, according to spokesman Ted Froats.

The current policy bans smoking within 100 feet of any entrance or exit, and no smoking within 10 feet of a courtyard entrance to nursing units at Lakeside Manor.

A ban on smoking extends to government vehicles, including golf carts used to shuttle around the campus.

RELATED: State may raise taxes on cigarettes

Smoking is banned indoors and within 35 feet of entrances to the Dayton VA’s outpatient clinics in Springfield, Middletown, Lima, and in Richmond, Ind.

The smoking policy applies to both traditional and e-cigarettes, Froats said.

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About the Author

Barrie Barber