[In-patient smoker? - Providing appropriate intervention]

Tobacco use is the most avoidable cause of death. Other than provoking multiple diseases requiring hospitalisation, Tobacco Use is also a disease requiring management in the hospital setting, not only in terms of controlling the withdrawal symptoms of the patient, who has been abruptly prohibited from smoking, but also for fulfilling legislation which prohibits tobacco use in the health services, the only efficient way of preventing exposure of non-smokers to environmental tobacco smoke. Treating the in-patient smoker in an appropriate way also provides a window of opportunity for promoting not just a temporary but a complete smoking cessation.