Towson University douses smoking on campus

[onehandle]

Source: Washington Post

Towson University first pushed its smokers out of campus buildings and into the great outdoors. Then, 30 feet away from buildings. Finally, last semester, it was off campus altogether. Between classes, smokers rush to the state- or county-owned roads edging the Baltimore County campus. Not stepping off school property before lighting up can mean a $75 fine.

"On campus, it's a breath of fresh air - finally," said Steven Crudele, a former member of the student government who was part of the campus smoke-free task force. "When you are walking in and out of buildings, you don't have to walk through a cloud of smoke."

Towson is one of the first universities in the region to implement a strict, campuswide smoking ban. Similar initiatives are slowly picking up popularity at colleges across the country. Many university hospitals have such policies in place, as do several Maryland community colleges.

Such bans quickly clear the air at college campuses, allowing nonsmokers to study and learn, indoors and out, without the distraction or danger of secondhand smoke. The bans also try to speak directly to smokers, carrying the message that inhaling toxins is not healthy for anyone. That message is reinforced every time a smoker heads for the campus boundary.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR2011011603371.html

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. I'm of mixed feelings on this.

It's the healthy choice. Smoking is poison - no way around it. One would think a center for higher education restricts doing stupid things on campus.

However, as a person who enjoys liberty, I think it's awefully authoritarian to do somethign like that.

[DrDan]

3. with other causes you may have a point - however, this also affects non-smokers

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. True. But can anything we do truly not affect others?

Consider something as simple as going shopping. Where you shop and what you buy should be 100% up to you... yet the sum of decisions made by people ultimately shape the market and what is available to others.

For smaoking I do agree that it has direct adverse effects to others.

[pipoman]

9. I don't believe it has any health effect on others, done outside.

If it does, imagine the effect of a semi truck. As for a smell...there are plenty of avoidable offensive odors which are not the subject of laws.

[LynneSin]

14. The outdoor ban is a bit of a push although I wish more places would ban right outside the door

Nothing is worse then the path to getting inside a building is going past the employees smoking right by the front door.

I do see this less and less but I won't patronize a place that allows the smokers to congregate right by the front door. It's almost like a slap in the face - see we'll let you have your clean air inside but we're gonna douse you with cigarette smoke before you are allowed to go there. And although I highly doubt I would inhale enough smoke to affect my health thru that walkthrough, that smoke just clings like a rotten smell to my body.

[demigoddess]

21. smoking is a poison that goes from your lungs to someone else's

If I swallow cyanide to you want part of the dose??

[DrDan]

2. bravo

[pipoman]

4. Until there is a ban on carbonmonoxide

spewing vehicles on campus, this is nonsense.

[onehandle]

7. Smoking Worse Than Exhaust for Air Pollution

Three cigarettes can cause more air pollution than a diesel car's exhaust, according to an Italian study.

The study compared levels of air pollution particles produced by cigarettes with those coming from a late-model "eco-diesel" engine. The research team was led by Giovanni Invernizzi of the Tobacco Control Unit of Italy's National Cancer Institute.

Environmental tobacco smoke is a contributor of air pollution particles. These fine particles are a risk factor for chronic lung disease which can be debilitating and sometimes fatal. They can lead to conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, and are also a risk for lung cancer, write the researchers.

The test was conducted in the small, northern Italian mountain town of Chiavenna, which has unusually low outdoor levels of air pollution.

http://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20040823/smoking-worse-than-exhaust-for-air-pollution

[pipoman]

10. I'll sit in a bus full of smokers chain smoking,

you set in a bus with the exhaust piped into the passenger area. First one to give up or die loses. To claim any amount of tobacco smoke is more dangerous in an outdoor environment than vehicle emissions is unbelievable. Excuse me for questioning the motives and objectivity of, "Tobacco Control Unit of Italy's National Cancer Institute".

[Zoeisright]

11. Yep. That stupid excuse about car exhaust is a false equivalency.

But denial will always be a part of some people's lives.

[OhioArtist]

13. We're talking about two chemicals outdoors...

that people are exposed to, so I don't think it's a false equivalency to compare them.

I think it's funny to watch people outside smoking and see another person 100 yards away walking somewhere, when all of a sudden the person walking sees the person smoking and starts acting like they just walked into a tear gas cloud.

If there are clearly marked areas outside where people can smoke and others don't have to pass right by or through, there shouldn't be a problem. Somehow we're supposedly different from conservatives, yet when it comes to this issue there are so many progressives who want to take things to the extreme.

[pipoman]

19. Exactly

[LanternWaste]

17. Cost benefit analysis, you see.

Cost benefit analysis, you see.

Cars and trucks ferry many people and goods in an effective and efficient manner. Cigarettes don't.

Yes, there is nonsense and absurdity to be had... especially in fallacious analogies which dismiss of even deny context to better validate one's addiction.

[pipoman]

18. I don't smoke

I also don't believe in dreaming shit up to justify authoritarian laws, rules, and regulations. There aren't any smokers who don't understand the toxicity of their habit. To make the claim that someone smoking outdoors has any effect on others beyond, maybe, an odor, is idiotic. Especially while there are vehicles pumping out magnitudes more significantly more toxic (and odoriferous) emissions. This isn't to mention industrial emissions, smelly perfumes, and flatulence. This is just round 1 of an authoritarian takeover. Will your pet affliction be next? Fatty foods, alcohol, mj...what next? I choose not to side with authoritarians on issues which effect me or even those which have no effect on me.

[Iggo]

6. If they ain't addicted, then no problem. They can wait 'til they're off campus.

If they are addicted, then they have a different problem.

[OKNancy]

8. How times have changed. When I went to University

in the late 1960s/early 70s we had ashtrays built into the desks. You could smoke in the classroom.
The Student Union smelled of coffee and cigarettes and newspapers. I loved it actually.

[SoCalDem]

15. My first day of English class at KU was spent learning how to make a paper ashtray

The prof wanted us to all know how to make them so we did not ash on the floors:) (1968)

[azurnoir]

12. have they banned drinking on campus?

or is that not the current bandwagon to jump on?

[Mr Generic Other]

16. there are so many dangerous pollutants

in the air we breathe that to target individuals who smoke for creating an unhealthy environment is a bit of a joke.
individual smokers are just an easier target than corporations.

[Igel]

20. Next up: Something else that is unhealthy, on average.

Too much fats? Risk of behaviorally-transmitted disease? Too much alcohol? Not enough exercise? Wearing clothes inappropriate for the weather?

Of course, NCAA football and basketball will be the last to be banned.