Health officials look to extend smoking ban around county buildings

Cowlitz County officials plan to make the entire health department campus — including the parking lot — smoke free this year and are considering eventually extending that to all county buildings.
Smoking is already banned inside county buildings by a state law that also prohibits smoking within 25 feet of entrances or windows. The new ban, which still must be formally approved by county commissioners in January, would mean smoking is now off-limits anywhere on the health department property.
Health officials said it's the right thing to do given their mandate to improve the county's overall health.
"Part of our job is to walk our talk, whether that comes to exercising more or going tobacco-free," said Carlos Carreon, the county's director of health and human services. St. John Medical Center, for example, also has a tobacco-free campus.
Smoking in particular plagues Cowlitz County, which has much higher smoking rates for both adults and teens than state averages. Pathways 2020, a coalition dedicated to improving the county's quality of life, earlier this year gave the county an "F" grade for the number of pregnant smokers and "D" grades for the number of adult smokers and asthma rates.
Health officials polled employees about the change and also talked with other counties, including Mason and Pierce, who have similar bans either at their health department or for their entire county. Local employees overwhelmingly supported the ban in the poll.
Officials plan to post signs about the new policy including asking drivers to extinguish any cigarettes before getting out of their cars. A picnic table on the property also will be off limit to smokers. They also will enforce the policy as "gently" as possible and officials plan to work with human resources "because we realize tobacco is an addiction," Carreon said.
The ban discussed last week deals only with the health and human services property at 1952 9th Ave., in Longview. But, health officials said they hope to eventually expand the measure to all county buildings.
"The long-term goal is to maybe expand it county-wide," Carreon said.
Commissioner Axel Swanson said it's worth investigating, though he cautioned there may be more details that need to be worked out.
"We'll see how it works out (at the health department) but I'd definitely support looking at it countywide," Swanson said.
Commissioner Kathleen Johnson, for example, wondered if such a ban would extend to the cab of a county-owned truck. She also took exception to a line in the proposed health department policy that said employees breaking the policy face discipline including possible termination. Johnson wondered if that would pass muster with the county's unions if the ban was eventually extended to other buildings.
"I support the idea of the health department being a jumping off point, but if we're going to extend this across the board there may be other issues," Johnson said.
Carreon said the health department union representative was involved in drafting the health department's policy. He'll run it by the county's legal and personnel teams, though, to double check.