PORTSMOUTH, VA

Portsmouth Naval Medical Center is clearing the air.

During the next five months, the hospital will phase out 15 of its outdoor smoking areas, eventually leaving only two areas where tobacco use will be allowed, Rear Adm. Matthew Nathan, the facility's commander, announced Monday. Smoking is already prohibited inside clinical buildings.

"We work very hard to take care of and to restore the health of people who have been affected by tobacco," Nathan said. "So if we're going to do that and we're going to create an atmosphere of good health and health prevention, then it really is incumbent upon us to have an environment where our staff and our patients can be in a smoke-free environment."

The phase-out will begin Monday, when the center will close four designated smoking areas, and will continue through Nov. 20, the day of the Great American Smokeout. Only residents living in the barracks and employees hired before July 1 will be allowed to smoke or chew tobacco in the remaining two designated areas.

In addition, the Navy Exchange on site will stop selling tobacco products once its existing stock is gone.

The medical center is one of the first military installations to pass such a wide-ranging

tobacco-free policy, although the Air Force and other individual bases have proposed similar restrictions.

Many of the medical center's nonsmokers applaud the effort, while its smokers have mixed reactions. An employee survey showed that 84 percent of the staff support a tobacco-free policy.

But only about 25 percent of smokers do, said Cmdr. Ed Simmer, director of quality management for the center.

Opponents pointed out that the current designated smoking areas are located where people can easily avoid them when approaching building entrances.

"It's stupid," Seaman Arnell Jackson, a Portsmouth corpsman, said while smoking in a designated area outside of the hospital's emergency room. "I think people should be able to do whatever they feel like on their breaks."

Seaman Tayler Fuentes said she also opposes the planned changes because they're inconsistent with Navywide regulations.

"I just think it should be fair across the board," said the corpsman, who is working to gradually quit smoking. "I think it's ridiculous because I came off a ship, and we were able to smoke" on it.

Several smokers said the restrictions would encourage people to cut down on smoking at work but not quit altogether. For those who decide to quit, the medical center is offering additional classes and free medications.

"We're doing this both to present a better ambiance of smoke-free living as well as perhaps to incentivize those folks who have been waiting for just that one thing to get them to quit," Nathan said.

He said that enforcement will start with trusting people who obey the new rules. "We're trying to do this in a way that gingerly balances the needs of individuals that have a tough habit to kick," Nathan said. "Let us help them do it."

Kathy Adams, (757) 446-2583, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com