Harvard expands medical campus smoking ban

Harvard is expanding its no-smoking policy to its entire Longwood medical campus, extending current rules banning smoking inside buildings and near entrances and air intakes.

The new rules will go into effect next spring for Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and the Harvard School of Public Health. The delay will give smokers time to quit and an opportunity to enter free, voluntary stop-smoking programs, medical school dean Dr. Jeffrey Flier said in a statement announcing the change.

The announcement was made yesterday at the opening of an exhibit on advertising campaigns that portrayed doctors pushing cigarettes.

Among the three other medical schools in the state, University of Massachusetts Medical School said last month its campus-wide ban would go into effect May 27. Support for smokers who want to quit began March 1.

At Tufts University School of Medicine, the no-smoking policy affects all indoor spaces at the university.

Boston University School of Medicine prohibits smoking in its buildings, allowing smoking only in designated outside areas on campus.