Ochsner Health System has announced that beginning today, Ochsner’s North shore campuses will be completely tobacco free. No dipping or smoking will be allowed anywhere on the property, even in the parking lots. This applies to all Northshore campuses.

Ochsner North Shore CEO Scott Boudreaux said as part of Ochsner’s mission to improve the health of the community, it is their responsibility to take a leadership role to set an example for healthy living.

The tobacco ban applies to all tobacco products and includes the cessation of “designated smoking areas” inside and outside the hospitals, 24 hours a day. The ban applies to all employees, patients, patients’ family members, visitors and vendors. Signs announcing the ban are being posted, said Boudreaux. “We are essentially giving the gift of life to people because secondary smoke in itself is extremely dangerous,” he said.

Eliminating the designated smoking areas and smoking in parking lots also eliminate secondary smoke, he added.

In 1939, Dr. Alton Ochsner, one of the founders of Ochsner Hospital and then Ochsner Health System, discovered the link to tobacco use and lung cancer. Boudreaux said Ochsner spent his entire life educating the world on the effects of smoking.

As a result of Ochsner’s research, warnings were first placed on cigarette packages in 1965 and have progressively increased in severity as the effects of smoking have become known.

“We want to promote a healthier environment as Dr. Ochsner did many years ago,” said Boudreaux.

According to Dr. Edward Martin Jr., Ochsner North Shore’s medical director, evidence shows that smoking damages nearly every organ in the human body and smoking and secondhand smoke causes at least 10 different cancers. It also accounts for nearly 30 percent of all cancer deaths.

Anyone interested in quitting smoking should call the free Louisiana Quit Line at 1-800-QUIT-NOW.