As a doctor, the only part of your recent editorial (“Smokers don’t deserve to be outlawed,” ODE May 28) that I can agree with is the title. But we are not talking about outlawing smokers; the UO community is appropriately talking about outlawing smoking on campus. As a former UO student, I strongly disagree with your editorial because we can and should make the UO a smoke-free campus.
I now have the opportunity to care for sick UO students. Here are some of my clinical observations, supported by medical literature: Students who smoke are more likely to suffer prolonged respiratory tract infections including pneumonia requiring an emergency visit. If they continue smoking, they are headed toward lung diseases like asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Your editorial talks about the cost and feasibility of enforcing a smoke-free campus policy. It is a fact that smoking raises health care costs for all of us. We cannot afford to continue making excuses for not banning smoking on campus. Your editorial is incorrect in assuming there are “relatively low numbers of smokers on campus;” for us nonsmokers who have to hold our breath coming out of doors from public buildings, the toxic clouds of smoke are too high a number.
Your editorial also repeats other incorrect assertions, such as “something as seemingly innocuous as lighting a cigarette” and “nevertheless, they won’t stop smoking.” Studies have consistently shown that if smoking is made more difficult during the daily routine by smoke-free campuses, it will be easier for smokers to give up the addiction. Instead of smoking on campus, they start using nicotine gum or inhalers or patches. These substitutes for smoking cigarettes are the start for quitting permanently.
The music group The Editors’ second album is titled: An End Has A Start. The hit single is titled: (The Saddest Thing I’d Ever Seen) Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors. Sacred Heart Medical Center had the same discussions before it became smoke-free. It is time for the UO to become smoke-free too.
Gary Young, MD
ED Medical Director, Sacred Heart Medical Center
UO can’t afford to delay efforts to make its campus smoke-free
Daily Emerald
May 29, 2008
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