The MSU Police Department does a pretty good job of enforcing the rules on campus, with one major exception: They don’t enforce the smoking policy at all.
Student Affairs’ policy on the
use of tobacco on campus states,
“Smoking shall only occur at a
reasonable distance (25 feet or
more) outside any enclosed area
where smoking is prohibited so as
to insure that secondhand smoke
does not enter the area through
entrances, windows, ventilation
systems, or any other means.”
Now before you write me off as
some kind of authoritarian hack
trying to tell you how to live your
life, let me make it clear that I
don’t care if you smoke. If looking
“cool” is so important to you that
you’re willing to risk years off your
life, go for it. However, I don’t
want you to do it around me.
Secondhand smoke is bad
enough thanks to the awful stench
and clouded air that it causes
even if it weren’t dangerous. But
when you consider the health risk
that secondhand smoke presents,
it becomes downright rude for
smokers to expose nonsmokers
to it.
The tobacco companies have
spent millions trying to deny that
there is a health risk from secondhand
smoke, and most smokers I
know seem to buy it hook, line
and sinker.
In his 2006 report on secondhand
smoke, U.S. Surgeon
General Richard H. Carmona
reported that, backed up by
“overwhelming scientific evidence,”
exposure to secondhand
smoke causes heart disease, lung
cancer and respiratory problems.
Approximately 3,000 American
nonsmokers die from lung cancer
every year thanks to secondhand
smoke, and the only way to prevent
mass exposure to secondhand
smoke is to set up smoke
free environments.
If you want to disagree with
a scientific consensus and the
foremost body on health in the
world, that’s your prerogative, but
remember that tobacco companies
want you to keep smoking
and keep buying cigarettes.
Take that into account when
you consider their science.
Almost daily, when I walk
into my residence hall, people
are standing right by the door
smoking, and I have to endure
the secondhand smoke. I have to
wonder why the university has
this policy when no one cares
to enforce it. It doesn’t help that
cigarette butt canisters are often
put right next to a door.
So what can be done about
this? First, the canisters, which
are a great idea, should always be
put 25 feet away from a building.
Second, the MSU Police Department should issue tickets
to students who smoke within 25
feet of a building. The fine can be
relatively light, but once a few students
start getting fined, I think
that would cut back tremendously
on people ignoring the smoking
policy. Anyway, if we’re not
going to enforce the policy, why
have it in the first place?
Another place where the smoking
policy is unenforced is Davis
Wade Stadium, where smoking
is only allowed in designated
areas, not the seating areas. At
least once every game this season,
someone has lit a cigarette in the
crowded student section and has
received no punishment. These
inconsiderate few who decide to
light up are polluting the air of
hundreds of people around them
and exposing us all to secondhand
smoke. The only solution to this I
can think of is to kick people out
of the stadium if they smoke in
the seating area.
I don’t want to make a blanket
statement like, “Smokers are
arrogant and completely disregard
the health of other people.” I am
good friends with several smokers
who are good people, but when
I told them about my idea about
ticketing people for smoking near
a building, they got defensive and
angry about it. They told me
about how it was their right to
smoke, and of course they sidestepped
the issue.
Of course it’s their right to
smoke, as long as they’re not
endangering other people. Since
secondhand smoke does cause
cancer, they are endangering the
health of others if they smoke too
close to a building.
Harry Nelson is a senior majoring in math and polital science. He can be contacted at [email protected].