Healthy action taken to help kick the habit!

New anti-smoking measures took effect May 31, 2009, at Grouse Mountain to help keep the air clean and healthy for everyone, while making it easier for existing smokers to kick the habit. The resort is the largest youth employer on the North Shore and has a responsibility to be a beacon of health for all our staff and visitors. All of Grouse Mountain is now smoke and tobacco free, and the realization of this long-awaited goal will further the good health practices recreation enthusiasts expect and value. 

Giving up tobacco use requires our support and understanding, and a variety of options are available to any staff member interested in smoking cessation programs. Most notably, all our employees are offered counselling and compensation for products to help them quit smoking is included in benefit plan coverage provided by Grouse Mountain. Helping our employees kick the habit has been underway for the past two years, during which time the company has successfully helped 15 Grouse Mountain employees quit smoking. 

 

“As a recreation provider we are committed to health promotion and disease prevention,” says Michael Cameron, Grouse Mountain general manager. “It is also our duty to ensure a healthy work environment and preserve our mountain.”

Smoking is recognized as the most preventable cause of death in Canada by health officials, and the action taken at Grouse Mountain will also serve to reduce public exposure to another serious and inextricably linked health hazard. There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke, and it is widely acknowledged that such contact can lead to disease and premature death in children and adult non-smokers.

As a smoke-free resort open to the public, guests and company employees should consider their own well-being, the health of others and the preservation of pristine natural environment.

Education tools are being utilized to reinforce this health conscious message across the resort, and to explain how smoking restrictions in public places are successful in providing the following benefits to public health safety: Reduced exposure to second-hand smoke (which contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemicals and increases risk of heart disease) Decreased tobacco consumption Reduction in serious health-related hospital admissions Increased rates of persons who quit smoking