Let smokers smoke. But let them smoke somewhere else, in a designated location, so they won’t bother non-smokers.
The debate over whether or not our University should endorse a smoke-free policy has brought both strong support and strong opposition from individuals and student groups across campus. For the better part of this year a student group known as the Clean Air Project, in coordination with the University Health Center, has been advocating a smoke-free campus – essentially a prohibition of the use of cigarettes on University property.
More recently, a seven-member “Smoke-Free Task Force” has been assembled to examine the necessity and feasibility of a campus-wide smoking ban. The Clean Air Project presented its case at a meeting Tuesday, and now the Smoke-Free Task Force must present its decision on whether to implement a ban to Vice President for Finance and Student Affairs Frances Dyke.
But despite the relatively low number of smokers on campus, the idea of a ban has met some stringent resistance. Individual rights activists have rallied for people’s right to smoke. Among their assertions is that, because smoking is a legal right, people should be allowed to smoke so long as they are aware of the potential harm they’re subjecting themselves to.
This does not take into account the dangers of second-hand smoke. Studies have proved time and again the dangers of smoke inhalation by non-smokers, so allowing non-smokers to shield themselves from the carcinogens emitted by smokers should be the paramount issue related to cigarette smoking on campus.
But before a move as drastic and irreversible as a full-scale smoking ban is implemented, several questions must be asked. For instance, is enforcing a smoking ban feasible? Increasing the presence of public safety officials on campus requires money the University has so far been unwilling to spend. And even if more officers were hired, would we really want them to spend their time citing individuals for something as seemingly innocuous as lighting a cigarette?
Further regulating the areas where people can smoke on campus would be a more reasonable, effective and generally welcomed change. People who smoke cigarettes right outside of campus buildings are a nuisance to non-smokers who must pass through the toxic cloud on their way to class, but they shouldn’t be forced from campus. Smoking is a vice and an addiction. This is common knowledge, and as a society we have chosen, as illustrated by our laws, to maintain cigarettes as a legal right to citizens who choose to consume them. If cigarettes are indeed banned on campus, smokers will simply go elsewhere when their nicotine cravings strike, or more likely will just flout the law and light up anyway. Nevertheless, they won’t stop smoking. University officials need to realize when their attempts to regulate student behavior will have palpable effects, and when they will fall on deaf ears.