November was a big month for the movement among Connecticut hospitals, supported by their host municipalities, to create "smoke free" campuses.

The Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Hartford Hospital, Saint Mary's Hospital and Waterbury Hospital and Danbury Hospital all created smoke free campuses.

In most cities ordinances also were passed that banned smoking on public sidewalks running through the campuses.

In New Haven, the ordinance for Saint Raphael's was the second approved by the Board of Aldermen. Earlier it had passed one for the Yale-New Hospital campus.

Hartford also banned smoking on sidewalks in the vicinity of its hospitals. According to the Connecticut Hospital Association, the smoke free movement was an outgrowth of the late Mayor Mike Peter's "Healthy Hartford" program.

A map of hospitals that have created smoke free zones or are planning to do so can be seen on the CHA website. Search the Connecticut Hospital Smoke Free Campus Initiative.