Health First and Wuesthoff have decided to ban smokers from their properties. That's okay as long as they know their property ends at the sidewalk.

These types of policies could lead to the very real risk that valuable employees, including nurses who happen to smoke, will be lost by these two organizations.

These health care outfits will be better served to redirect their time, effort and money to curtail a dangerous threat to patients and staff members alike. The threat is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA.

In Jan. 2001, my wife underwent total hip replacement surgery at Holmes Regional Medical Center, 1350 South Hickory Street, Melbourne, Florida.

The rest of the year, she suffered four more surgeries on the hip for a MRSA infection. On the third surgery, the doctor removed the prosthesis, saying she would never get rid of the infection with it in there. Still, it came back after two more surgeries.

Changing the dressing one night, I poured alcohol into the wound. In a few weeks the MRSA finally went away. Whether the alcohol helped is unknown.

She was without a hip joint for five years, but in 2006 got a new one.

Do us all a favor, Health First and Wuesthoff. Try to eliminate something truly important -- MRSA infections.

Ira Adams