Smokers may need to move farther away from campus buildings to light up if the Campus Advisory Board succeeds in extending the “10-foot rule.”
Currently, most campus buildings require smokers to stand 10 feet away from an entrance, but Paula Staight, director of health education at the University Health Center, said the board hopes to expand that distance as much as 40 feet.
Establishing a 50-foot smoking distance would allow for easier enforcement, Staight said, adding that nobody is currently responsible for enforcing the rule, and it usually ends up being the job of individual building managers.
Lillis Business Complex Facilities Coordinator Frank Sharpy agreed that enforcing the smoking rule is difficult, and a smoker who is violating the rule is usually gone by the time someone gets outside to tell the smoker to move.
“I can’t go around this building all day long asking people to move away from the building,” he said.
The Lillis Business Complex is the only building on campus with a 50-foot smoking rule for several reasons, Sharpy said.
He said the building has such a state-of-the-art air exchange system — a blending of interior and exterior air — that smoke can really affect the air brought into the building. He added that Lillis has an extremely sensitive smoke detection system, which could be triggered by smoke filtering in from vents on the ground floor around the perimeter of the building.
Sharpy also said that he has received many complaints from people within the building claiming that “smoky air” is getting inside. One of the problems causing this is the wind tunnel that occurs when the front and rear doors of the atrium are open at the same time.
Stephanie Letson, a sophomore business administration major and a smoker, said she wouldn’t mind if smokers had to be more than 10 feet away from the building entrance.
“I think it would be fine because if I’m not smoking, I don’t like the smell of it,” she said.
She said that if the distance is extended, she worries about being able to smoke around the library. She would like to see benches installed beyond the smoking barrier so that smokers have a place to enjoy a cigarette while they are on a study break.
Most buildings around campus have smoking posts near them for the disposal of cigarettes, but Facilities Services Exterior Team Supervisor Tim King said all new posts are being installed farther away than before because of the possible rule change.
“We don’t want to put them by the front door or by a non-smoking area,” King said, adding that there are about 10 posts on campus right now, and another 20 to 30 will be installed very soon.
The idea for the smoking posts came from problems with open ashtrays, King said. The ashtrays had drainage difficulties, and in rainy weather they made a “nicotine soup” that looked and smelled horrible.
Posts were also installed to prevent littering of cigarette butts, he said.
“I’m not trying to change behavior; I’m putting them where we see a lot of (cigarette) butt accumulation on the ground,” he said. “I’m trying to prevent litter.”
He added that he is looking at this problem from a sanitation standpoint, whereas Staight is looking at it from a health standpoint.
Staight said she hopes the Advisory Board will be able to change the smoking distance regulation of the Oregon Administrative Rules because they are very outdated and state that staff can smoke in their offices.
One route the board is taking to change the rule is by planning several discussions with departments and organizations on campus that deal with enforcement.
Board members also plan to discuss smoking with incoming freshmen, distribute information about it in University literature and incorporate it into new employee orientation. They plan to use these methods to educate the campus about the distance rule as well, if it gets extended.
Staight is also working with the board to eliminate designated smoking entrances on campus, and she added that smokers generally don’t want to push their smoke onto others who don’t want to smell it.
“We just want to protect people’s health,” she said. “The ultimate goal is to be a smoke-free campus.”