Between the sidewalk entrance of Shands at UF and a few steps past the 20-foot limit of the next no-smoking sign is one of the remaining havens for smokers to puff gray haze into the air.
I pass this area five times a week and, without fail, see individuals of generations past fading in their wheelchairs with attached IV towers handling their last packs. I pass by scrubs with long faces holding their hand and lit cigarette inside the trash can to avoid suspicion and judgment.
Yet, none of these images have stirred me as much as the individual in a white coat this week at the corner, puffing away carefree across the street from the cancer hospital.
I could not stare for too long because such a shameful sight grew too heavy. As a medical student who recently received a white coat, I respect the responsibility and trust it symbolizes. At Shands at UF, white coats are not exclusive to current and future physicians.
Pharmacists, nurse practitioners and laboratory researchers can all wear the white coat. Heck, anyone can even walk into the bookstore and buy one. You need no certification or good intent to wear one.
But that smoker’s profession does not matter.
The harm done is equally the same.
Think of the pregnant woman who passes by a staff member posing as a chimney on her way for a checkup. Think of her school-aged children who come with her and see a white coat endorsing the production of gray clouds.
Think of the cancer patient who was recently diagnosed and passes by this fleshed oxymoron on the way to the bus. One can come up with numerous scenarios where it is inappropriate to allow a person in a white coat to emulate the behavior of a 1940s pro-tobacco ad.
Let this serve as a reminder for all of us who wear or will wear the white coat to do so in a professional manner with nonmaleficence.
Let us join in reason and call attention to the smoking problem still on the sidewalks in front of campus, especially the hospital.
As Simon & Garfunkel once said, “Silence like a cancer grows.”
