Hospital smoking ban pushes employee breaks into neighbors' yards

When St. Joseph's Hospital banned smoking from campus, some employees turned Kat Gridley's front yard into the new smoking lounge. Onondaga County made a new law in 2009 that allowed local hospitals to ban smoking within 100 feet of their properties. Gridley lives on Prospect Avenue, across the street from the emergency room entrance and a big yellow sign that says there is no smoking along the street, grounds and sidewalk. The paramedics stand in the front yard, not far from their vehicles. The nurses and orderlies prefer to hang out along a parking lot.