As most MSU students know, or should know, the university has issued a new smoking policy effective Dec. 1.
In case some readers missed out on last Friday’s issue of The Reflector, I will attempt to catch you up on what this policy suggests. This policy states that smokers will be asked to stand 25 feet away from an enclosed space while puffing away. It also states that campus mediums will not be allowed to advertise tobacco products and that staff and/or students will not be allowed to use tobacco products while inside an MSU vehicle.
My personal opinion on this new policy is that it’s poorly constructed and too vague to be enforced.
First and foremost, I would like to interject that I am a non-smoker and am very aware of how dangerous cigarettes are to a person’s health. And even though it’s quite annoying to be engulfed in cigarette smoke before walking into a building, I am a firm believer in people’s freedom, and that involves choosing whether or not to smoke.
My first concern with this new policy is how the university plans on enforcing the rule of feet from these enclosed spaces. Will a line be constructed around every building to let the smokers know where they can stand, or will they all need to carry around tape measures in their backpacks? If this will be strictly enforced, exactly how will it be done? Will yellow-enveloped tickets be given to these law-breaking smokers, or will there just be some sort of “slap on the wrist” for this blasphemous act?
And if the school plans on writing tickets for these people, certainly it would have to hire a new staff just for writing smoking citations because the parking ticket staff is way too busy printing tickets like it’s going out of style. So what I’m trying to say is, I don’t think people are really going to obey this new policy.
My second concern with the policy is the plain fact that the university is asking smokers to move away. Although second-hand smoke is dangerous, how harmful is it for someone to walk through an outdoor cloud of smoke for less than five seconds? It would seem to me that because these people are outdoors, the air is lifting the smoke away quicker than it takes for someone to even breathe enough in.
But if we are making people with sickening things such as cigarettes move, the university should also make a policy for people who are sick with a cough. I would be more afraid of walking through someone’s hacking cough than through cigarette smoke any day. How should I know if they are choking on their own saliva or if they have the bird flu? And also, should I need to eat my meat 25 feet away from the vegetarians because they feel it could fly out of my hand and damage their body?
The last piece of the policy that strikes a chord with me is the advertisement rule the university is trying to make. I have never seen a tobacco ad in a campus medium before, but like I already stated, I am not a smoker, so maybe I just looked right past it.
But one thing I have seen in more than one copy of The Reflector is a huge side panel ad for Fantasyland, an adult shop in nearby Columbus. Cigarettes seem to be more of an unhealthy habit than an offensive symbol.
Although some people are disgusted by cigarettes or choose not to engage in smoking, I’ve never seen anyone act toward cigarettes the same way they act toward sex toys. How is the university regulating its rule of no tobacco ads when there are ads that try to persuade people to visit a store that sells things such as pornography and no telling what else? Although the ads running this week are for Halloween costumes, it’s still an adult shop that would probably have offensive products for sale.
I think the only success the policy will have is aggravating and angering students, staff and visitors. Also, it seems to me that it’s oh-so-convenient that this policy begins at the same time as final exams, also known as the near-suicidal, most stressful time in a student’s academic year, at which time many students who don’t even smoke will light one up to relieve a little tension caused by the overload of studying.
Maybe the university could spend some money on building some smoking areas such as the ones most hospitals have. Not only would a designated smoking area be more logical, but I would hope that the university will move the ashtrays further away from the doorways in order to persuade people to stop and finish the cigarette wherever they are put. This might stir up a new problem of cigarette butt litter, but that’s the price we might have to pay so that we won’t walk through smoke to get to class.
It’s a win-lose situation. Either people stop smoking, we walk through smoke, we see litter, we don’t go to public places or we just deal with it and go on with our day not worrying about it. I guess only time will tell which option we choose to take.
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