The Great Smoking Debate
Everyone knows that smoking is harmful to your health. It causes lung diseases like hypertension, vascular disease, stroke, and of course cancer. And the list just keeps getting longer.
Personally, I have seen the effects of smoking not only on the smoker but on the family who must deal with the consequences. My grandfather (I called him Papa) smoked like a fiend when he was younger. He eventually quit, probably for my Gramma (yes that’s how we spell it), but never the less, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He fought it but died shortly after with several brain tumors and cancer all over his body. Was it worth it?
As a student in the College of Pharmacy, I have been exposed to many different therapies that are available for patients to stop smoking. I have also learned about the physiological process that cause stopping to be so difficult. What I have not had clearly explained to me is why, with all of the knowledge that is provided to us from grade school D.A.R.E. to commercials on TV, do people my age (or any age) start?
Anyways, that philosophical question is not the debate I am referring to in the title of this blog. What I am talking about is the Smoking Ban on Campus Debate. Some campuses are against it (see an article from Carnegie Mellon) but never the less (that seems to be my phrase of the day) it is a growing trend.
Whenever this proposal is brought up, people who oppose it are quick to argue that it is an “infringement on our rights”; or “where do the bans end? Will we ban trans fats next?” (Hmm… I wonder if my diets would turn out better if they did ban trans fats…); or, this is my favorite, “smokers are actually less expensive to society because they die sooner.” Yes, that last one was actually used at a Student Senate meeting last year. Talk about “Improving the Human Condition” huh?
And that takes me back to UT. We can look at other schools and benchmark all we want but what really matters to me is what happens in little old U of T. I know that this discussion brings up a lot of emotions because we discuss it in terms of extremes, no smoking or smoke all you want.
Well I have to admit that I, personally, am in the no smoking extreme. I think it would be great if production of cigarettes stopped and the world was made of cotton candy and licorice. But I understand reality. And I can see the other side of the argument. The most compelling of the “other side’s” arguments, to me, is that people LIVE on our campus. Their home is their dorm room. We cannot tell people what to do in their houses, so how can we tell them what to do where they live during college?
So my conclusion, as someone who is trying to find a solution for all of the students, is to propose a compromise. For those of us who don’t enjoy walking through a cloud of smoke on our way to class, ban smoking on campus. But, for those who are going to smoke anyways and don’t appreciate being regulated in their homes, allow smoking on the south side of the river (and map out an area that includes the Quad as well).
So now I’m throwing this idea out to all of you. I want to hear what you think about this debate. Please keep your responses respectful and include a UTAD email (which is shown on the the website – only to me) so that we don’t have any anonymous posters with bogus email addresses. I really want to know what people are thinking so if I can’t get back to you, then I won’t be able to effectively carry forward your opinion.
October 7th, 2009at 1:04 pm
If smokers actually think those who are for the smoking ban are putting an infringement on their rights, they are dead wrong. An infringement on someones right is when they have to inhale the 200+ toxic chemicals someone is spewing near one of the entrances. We can also throw into the mix that smoking violates ones right to privacy just because they have the volatile cigarette smoke pouring into their lungs.
I am for a total ban on smoking on this campus. Not only are you hurting yourself, you are hurting others and the environment. Here are some points to help back this up, and aimed at the smokers on campus.
-It is not only annoying when a smoker cannot stand the required 20 feet from an entrance, it is also against the law for them not to do so, and yet is poorly enforced on this campus. Have some respect for others or do not smoke on this campus.
-Is the world supposed to be your ash tray? I have seen tons of filthy cigarette butts all over the ground in some areas. Not only do I step on them but then my hands touch my shoes at the end of the day so I also get to touch the germs that came out of your body. Disgusting.
-On test days, when my grade is on the line, I really don’t appreciate smokers coming into class smelling like they smoked a pack of cigs and sitting next to me. I know a bunch of people who will say the same thing about people with body odor. Well I do not consider body odor something everyone can control. I would not be surprised if someone brought a lawsuit against a school in the next five years because of distracting people who smell like cigarettes on test days. Also, were you allowed to wear a hat in class while you were in high school? Probably not because it was a distraction to other students!
-Remember in high school when the cafeteria had to stop serving peanut butter sandwiches because someone was allergic to peanut butter? I’m sure we have enough people on this campus who are allergic to cigarette smoke that could constitute a ban. Not only are you endangering asthmatics, you are also irritating my eyes to wear they itch and become puffy and I can barely keep my eyes open. It’s not comfortable.
I think there should be a total ban on smoking on this campus. Not only do we not have the resources at the moment to enforce a ban, we also do not have enough respect from smokers to let them smoke on this campus. If we really need to have choices for both sides, then I say let them smoke in their cars or in parking lots.
October 7th, 2009at 2:14 pm
I am a huge pusher to ban smoking. I have seen enough of the realities of the damages in the last 11 years to last me a lifetime. My grandfather had emphysema for nearly 20 years before he had a stroke and died from it. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with COPD and died a horrible death in less than a year. My step-mother wnet in for pre-surgical xrays for hip replacement in Oct. A spot was found on her lung. After more testing and surgery, the cancer had spread through her lymph nodes and throughout her entire brain. Gone in less than 10 months. I cannot stand the stench that accompanies smoking. In no way should any non-smoker have to tolerate smokers and their nasty, filthy habits. Smoking should be banned in all common areas (on and off campus). Many times I have walked into a building and a smoker has exhaled their last puff on the way inside. WRONG. We nonsmokers have rights to clean, unpolluted, fresh air. The biggest problem that I see on campus is the area by the Carlson Library, Student Union and the UT Bookstore. Horrible. And since the colder weather is upon us, it has been increasingly worse. Another thing, I strongly believe that smokers health insurance rates should be significantly higher since they are intentionally doing harm to themselves. Come on people, wake up. Smoking is horrible, nasty, disgusting, health damaging, teeth yellowing. Well, I think I have made my point. I could go on but as it is I am very sure that a smoker will reply with many negative comments some of which may attack me personally. But I DO NOT CARE. I have been waiting for something to be said and done about this problem since the fall semester began.
October 7th, 2009at 3:08 pm
As a former smoker I get more annoyed than most about the smell of cigarettes. Any ex-smoker can tell you that the dirty smell of a limp cigarette is the smell of temptation. In general the smell of cigarettes is obnoxious to most non-smokers. However, given that there are very limited health risks of second-hand smoke in an open-area (unless you decide to sit right next to a smoker for an extended period), it does not make sense to ban smoking on the grounds of its offensive odor. Firstly, if one can regulate an activity on the basis of its offense factor it seems just as prudent to ban many of my male counterparts from dousing themselves in Axe after a workout at the Rec Center. Even though smoking does smell, it is not as though one can’t take relatively easy take steps to move away from the smell. Just like you don’t have to stay around someone who reeks of BO, you also do not have to sit close to a smoker in an open area. Undoubtedly, there will be times when one will accidentally walks past the stench of a pack a day smoker, but for the most part we have the freedom to avoid such smells. It is important that we all learn to tolerate some of the smellier habits of our peers and to respect their personal freedom to smell (like an ashtray). Learning to tolerate the less than desirable habits of others isn’t only an important part of being a mature adult, but also key to a free society. Therefore, banning on campus smoking simply because it is offensive is not in the best interest of our students.
October 7th, 2009at 4:04 pm
I am a Respiratory Therapist and the director of the Respiratory Care Program here at the University of Toledo. Our program trains people to be come Respiratory Therapists. We are the people who specialize in caring for patients with lung disease. Needless to say, I am in favor of a complete ban on smoking on the Unviversity of Toledo campus–dorms and everywhere else. I see the effects of smoking “up close and personal” in the patients I care for. I don’t think you have had a complete life experience until you have taken care of someone through their dying process. Dying is a part of life, and until we each experience it with a loved one, we are not really a complete human being. That being said, there are some pretty miserable ways to die, and without a doubt, death from lung disease (COPD, Cancer, Asthma, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Cystic Fibrosis, Pneumonia, etc) is one of the most miserable. It is also one of the most preventable.
Granted we can make the argument that we do not have the right to deny someone the privilege of smoking in their home–a home which they own and are completely responsible for. Hotels have no smoking requirements, as do many landlords. Dorm rooms do NOT belong to the students living in them–they belong to all citizens of the state of Ohio, so there should be no question that smoking can and should be banned EVERYWHERE on the campus! Hospitals and businesses do it–why should Universities not be able to do it as well. If you really have to smoke, then go buy a house or condo somewhere that is completely yours.
Also, we need to recognize that the primary attraction to smoking is ultimately addiction to nicotine (it may start off a something socially cool, but ultimately it becomes nothing more than an addiction). Nicotine is the most addictive substance know to man–more addictive than cocaine or heroine. It may not have the immediate social consequences as cocaine or heroine, but it is actually more addictive. Therefore, quitting smoking is probably one of the hardest things that any person can do. Statistics show that almost no one can do it alone.
If you are not a smoker, please, PLEASE do not start. Even a few cigarettes (fewer than 10) can make you addicted. Studies have demonstrated that those under the age of 25 are especially vulnerable to nicotine addiction. If you are a smoker, I urge you to do everything you can to quit. If you would like to quit, please feel free to call or e-mail me. I can connect you with people and institutions who can increase your chances of success considerably. (craig.black@utoledo.edu or 419.530.4792).
October 7th, 2009at 4:32 pm
Just a reminder to use a valid email address when you leave a reply. I got a comment from someone who would prefer not to have smoking bans (I wanted to make sure his/her opinions were heard) but left a fake email address so I’m not going to post it.
Stand behind your opinions!
October 7th, 2009at 4:33 pm
Smoking is an awful, grimy, disgusting habit to start & there is no good excuse available to those who seek to continue the habit. Claiming addiction may garner some understanding & outiside encouragement to quit, but that’s all. To habitual or potential smokers: there is no logical reason to start, and no logical reason to convince yourself that you’re excused from an honest attempt to quit via appeal to addiction. I am a smoker, and I am addicted…and I can & will quit when the incenctive is right for me (the reason to quit, the breaking point is ultimately subjective & it may never arise). There is simply no worthy justification to explain-away willpower.
Now I offer criticism to the non-smoking or pro-ban polemics. First: enforceability. Any ban will prove weak in lacking enforcibility; the change will be a nominal change. Any legislative attempt will be more spinning of the wheels. Second: since non-smokers lodge the complaint, the burden of proof ought to be on them. Not to prove that smoking is physically deleterious in the least – that horse has been brutalized enough & any smoker who honestly questions that smoking is harmful is a fool clawing at unreality and wishful thinking – but to prove that dealing w/ the second hand smoke is anything beyond numerous though disperate, fleeting nuisances; annoyances in the truest sense. If the pro-ban population fails to marshal sufficient, undeniably credible evidence that walking through smoke clouds in extremely brief time-frames (totalling, what, 3 minutes in an entire day?) triggers anything more than shallow & trite aggrivation, then the argument should dissolve. Ole ’slippery slope’: where would it end? “Hey, Ohio, Toledo, University, go misallocate more of my tax/tuition by hiring some shmucks or charging existing employees w/ the task of tracking down those brats who routinely piss me off by their acts of existing!” Or, “go outlaw those jerks who spit everywhere as they stand outside the entryway”. Or “do something about those schlubs who chew loudly, or crack their knuckles untimely, or smack their gum or talk about their crohn’s symptoms too loudly. Lord, I can’t concentrate w/ all that!” Ridiculous? You bet it is. Understandable? If you agree then there’s no saving you, my friend.
The onus is on every one of us to at least try & accomidate others when it is feasible. Don’t trap non-smokers and passersby with blowing smoke where they can’t avoid it. Clean up after yourself. Use yer friggin’ common sense and try to be nice. Legislating taste and posting signs won’t consistently attend to the problem & it is sad & shameful that such angles are even pursued. I’m a self-proclaimed wretch with inumerable pet peeves and it isn’t only that most things I accept as nuisances are, at the moment, inactionable, but that I would serve to be an infectoius, hypocritical splinter in the warm, fuzzy, tree-humping gestalt union of our community at large if I made a point of curtailing trivial nuisances legally. Maybe I’m just a lame nihilist for not condoning bans on like nuisances or for not taking action myself (or I discourage the approach because I smoke cigarrettes, hmmm…).
In application to the issue before us, we are stuck w/ having faith in people or doing our part to personally inform them of their misconduct (Hey, punk, quit pissing me off by blowing smoke right at me!, or a more cordial approach). Either he/she will make a note of that and change, or he/she won’t. Either way, some circumstances call on this groundbreaking advice: DEAL WITH IT!.
October 7th, 2009at 5:06 pm
I neglected to include the following provision to my admission of inaction due to the fact that I am willingly involved in a love-hate relationship w/ carcinogenic crap. Consider whether any of us have or should have the right to incidentally annoy others if & when it can be ascertained that the conduct in question is indeed no more than an annoyance. This determination of mere nuisance inevitably requires that we’re all honest w/ ourselves and demands bilateral concession to the point of realizing the primary goal of seeking resolution and thereby evidencing genuine attempts to be cool w/ each other.
October 7th, 2009at 6:42 pm
I am all for the smoking ban as well. I do have a concern about enforcing, however. I work on the Health Science Campus and I still continue to see patients in their hospital gown standing right outside the main entrance, smoking. I have even witnessed a person from administration walk by a scene like this and not even bat an eyelash.
So, my question is-OK, we have banned smoking, so what? The parking lot reeks of smoke as eveyone (including employees) now hide in their car to light up. If I am a non-smoking patient, this is not a pleasant site/smell. At least when there were smoking areas, they were out of site and not within nose distance.
October 8th, 2009at 12:13 am
As a non-smoker, I know it might sound weird to the rest of you, but I don’t mind the smell of smoke. Sometimes it can be a little overpowering like back in the day when you were allowed to smoke in a bar, but if I’m walking past a person in open air smoking a cigarette, it really does’t bother me. To be honest, I can’t remember a time when I was walking around campus and I saw anyone smoking. I never see anyone smoking outside the building doors which I will admit, is good. It’s good for people who are sensitive to the smell so that they don’t have to walk past them to get into a building.
Over all I would be opposed to a campus-wide ban. I noticed postings on here saying that the people’s clothes smell like smoke while they’re taking an exam…. (What’s stopping them from lighting up at home off campus before the exam?) Pretty soon you won’t be able to do anything in this country…
October 8th, 2009at 11:33 am
-Is the world supposed to be your ash tray? I have seen tons of filthy cigarette butts all over the ground in some areas.-
That one is simple. Put the ashtrays back.
I don’t like smoking, so I vote to remove the ashtrays.
I don’t like litter, so I vote to remove the trash cans.
I don’t believe in teens having sex, so I vote to withhold birth control.
geez.
October 9th, 2009at 11:17 am
As someone who has never smoked, I am for the smoking ban. I cant stand being around the smell of smoke. I dont know how many times while walking to class or to and fro on campus, somebody just lights up in front of me. That ignores me the most. I also notice all the cigarette butts on the ground across campus. Thats just nasty to see in my opinion. Everyone shouldnt have to smell the smoke on campus its just not right. I dont come to college to have to inhale smoke. The health issues and the damaging effects of smoking and inhaling smoke. I think something needs done. Its nasty and I think the university would look better and cleaner if there was some type of a ban.
October 9th, 2009at 1:55 pm
We don’t removed the ashtrays, some smokers just don’t have the common courtesy to put their butts in the trash or in the ash trays provided on campus. I’m all for not banning things that don’t pose a significant threat to others.
What it all boils down to is having some kind of decency for others. Remember the saying “Treat others how you want to be treated.” If you were in my position would you want to have to endure this? Or do you not even care about seeing litter, smelling second hand smoke, letting others smell this stench originating from you and so on? If so, would you be one of those types of people who just stand by and watch the madness unfold and do nothing? That is what happens when you say “It doesn’t matter” or “I don’t care”
Once again, on this rainy day, smokers flock to the entrance ways that are covered from the rain. You may think it’s a mere matter of seconds that someone has to endure smelling smoke, but really when you have to wait for a ride to pick you up in those entrance ways it can be just as long as it takes for them to smoke a cigarette.
If you really want to not ban smoking then let’s not ban other things. Let’s have everyone do what they want without regard to others or themselves. Let us let others have sex on the streets, inject heroine into their arms in doorways, steal from the grocery store, rob banks, etc. What harm are they doing to us, others, and themselves….ah shucks, not very much damage going on right?
October 11th, 2009at 10:29 pm
My grandfather smoked since he was twelve. And while he smoked cigars instead of cigarettes, it still had a huge impact on his life. By the time his death came around in June of 1999, he was looking for his own obituary. I don’t know the technicalities of what that was, I can’t describe it, even more so since I was five when he died. But I do know that I remember that, and I remember not being able to cry over his death for the longest time, because I knew that he was ready to be dead than live with the addiction. I HATE seeing people suffer like that. I’m all for enforcing the smoking ban, especially if it means sparing people that sort of pain.
October 12th, 2009at 10:10 am
There are some of us out there who didn’t know that the possibility for debate still existed. Last year, there was a school-structured debate about a campus-wide smoking ban, and I participated excitedly; I needed to get up in front of a microphone and inform big heads and bigger wallets at this university that I was not paying $16,000 a year for them to be my babysitter.
I had the privilege of being personally hushed by provost Jeffrey Gold, whose attempt to silence me mid-debate got plenty of skeptical looks. After the debate, a Q and A session ensued, and Mr. Gold described the policies that he was interested in pressing into our fragile forms; much like alcohol in underage circumstances, smoking on campus would be punishable by fines and “cessation classes” where student-generated money would be spent on forcing people to quit smoking under threat of penalty.
After this travesty, I was informed that most of the debate was just an experiment – the people who wanted to encourage “real, honest discussion” already had their minds made up – and people like me, who just want to enjoy a cigarette or two with a cup of coffee, get shafted.
Now I understand the pain and horrible circumstances that cigarette smoking has caused people. Too many times, really. But let’s be honest – cigarette smoking is nothing like rampant fornication in the streets or intravenous drugs. If the smell bothers you, I apologize. The sweet-smelling tobacco products I typically enjoy are now illegal, in the name of health. If the litter bothers you, I also apologize. If only I stopped smoking cigarettes and disposing of them properly, and started handing out advertisements for Chaser’s and other local clubs… Litter is what you make of it. If you see an ad for a conference on the ground next to a cigarette, and the cigarette bothers you, you’re looking for a reason to be angry at the cigarette.
But I digress to the original point. There are many arguments – GOOD ones – about deciding to ban or allow smoking. Litter and the “ew” factor are not included. Banning smoking on campus is like banning football: many think it’s a waste of time and money; football players put their own bodies, and the bodies of others, at serious risk; and the only reason people do it is to feel good or try to look cool.
But we can’t ban something just because people don’t like it, or it’s not good for them. The sound of someone crying out in the name of one’s own health is patronizing and frustrating. We KNOW that it isn’t “good” for us. We KNOW that it costs a lot (mainly because sin taxes allow our government to regulate our behavior through prices) but we do anyway. Hearing a girl or a boy, younger than I am, telling me how to live my life isn’t care when you hate what I do in such a way. Pushing bans on behavior is not freedom, it’s oppressive and limiting. It is, to bring my favorite word into this argument, like fascism.
Argue. Mazeltov.
–RK
October 13th, 2009at 8:00 am
RE: “That one is simple. Put the ashtrays back.
I don’t like smoking, so I vote to remove the ashtrays.
I don’t like litter, so I vote to remove the trash cans.
I don’t believe in teens having sex, so I vote to withhold birth control.”
I agree… at my employer, they have ash trays away from the entrance in a shady area. Smokers have their little spot outside and non-smokers have a smoke free entrance to the building.
This isn’t a questions of “is smoking healthy”. This is a question of “do we have liberty”?
Next, we’ll be banning fatty foods or soda… oh wait…