Smoke-Free Campus

January 3, 2011

Dear Colleagues:

To maintain a safe and healthy environment for our students, faculty, staff, and visitors, Georgetown University Medical Center is now a smoke-free campus.

GUMC’s mission encompasses the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis — which means "care of the whole person." GUMC’s Smoke-Free Policy will help us do just that, care for the whole person and community.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general. Quitting smoking has immediate as well as long-term benefits for you and your loved ones. More people in the United States die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer. This is true for both men and women.”

Smoking is a common hazard not only for our family members and friends but also to Mother Nature when cigarette butts end up in water sources and pollute our water. With our new smoke-free policy, we can care for our health and environment.

In the coming weeks, we will provide more information on cessation resources and wellness activities available to our GUMC community.

We are all responsible for creating a healthier environment at GUMC.

Let’s make GUMC smoke-free together.

Sincerely,

Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences
Executive Dean of the School of Medicine