The Clark Fork Valley Hospital campus is now smoke-free, and a group of hospital employees and volunteers smashed the hospital's designated smoking shed with hammers Monday to mark the occasion.

The hospital administration announced in November that the Clark Fork Valley Hospital campus would become entirely smoke-free Jan. 1, 2008. The announcement was made in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout Nov. 15, at which point Sandy Chenoweth, the administrative assistant to Dr. Dean French, said many hospital employees made a commitment to try to quit smoking.

The hospital's policy means no smoking will be allowed by anyone - including staff members, visitors and patients - in buildings or on hospital grounds. To commemorate the occasion, a shed designated as a smoking area was knocked down Monday. Chenoweth and Jan Parmelee, Sanders County Public Health Tobacco Prevention specialist, hosted a gathering before the shed was demolished. Attendees enjoyed treats and beverages and perused a table full of tobacco education brochures, bumper stickers and buttons.

"It promotes a healthy environment for the whole community," said Parmelee. "It will encourage the employees, the visitors and patients if they do smoke to quit smoking. If they need help to quit and want to quit the hospital is here to help them and Montana Tobacco Use Prevention is here to help them."

She said resources available include nicotine patches and gum, Chantix (a prescription smoking cessation medication) and the state's Tobacco Quit Line, 1-800-QUIT-NOW. Information is also available at the website tobaccofree.mt.gov.

Parmelee said patients entering the hospital will be asked if they smoke or chew tobacco, and cessation products will be provided by staff during their stay. For example, said Chenoweth, patients with heart disease will be encouraged to begin the process of quitting tobacco use when they arrive at the hospital, and doctors can prescribe Chantix or other tobacco cessation products.

Parmelee said a major push is underway to encourage Montana hospitals to become smoke-free. Smoke-free banners, she said, have been rotated from hospital to hospital as they become smoke-free; about 10 state hospitals have made the transition to date.

"Most people want to quit - they just don't know how," Parmelee said. "This hospital is helping them do it."

Chenoweth said the smoke-free campus will facilitate longer cessation periods and a healthier lifestyle for employees and patients who smoke. Chenoweth said quitting smoking can be a difficult and frustrating process, and the hospital's goal is to provide cessation assistance and resources.

Hospital leaders had been discussing the move to a smoke-free campus and Chenoweth said she backed a "grassroots effort" to implement the plan. She said many employees started the quitting process on their own, and though "it's a change and it's different," most have been receptive.