Student: smokers steal fresh air

Editor:

Most students of GC&SU spend long hours inside the enclosed buildings each day for their scheduled classes. Is it too much to want to take a breath of fresh air when I come out of the building?

I find that when I am on campus now I can hardly leave a building and be safe from secondhand smoke. Just walking down the sidewalk, I either pass people who are smoking or find myself having to walk next to them. If I sit on a bench to rest or study between classes, it is not long before a smoker sits down on the same bench or a surrounding one to light up.”

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studies show lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke to account for approximately 3,000 deaths each year in American nonsmokers. That being the case, GC&SU should develop some air friendly policies that minimize the risk of getting lung cancer. It is hardly fair that each time I take a breath outdoors on campus that I am wondering if that is the breath that will eventually lead to my demise due to lung cancer.

Is there even a place on campus for people to go if they want to be outside, but don,t want to breathe in the smoke of someone’s cigarette?

Smoking on campus has become outrageously common. All people should have the right to breathe clean air. Should I really have to hold my breath every time I walk outside? Why is there not a designated smoking spot on campus?

The only smoking regulation to be found on the GC&SU website states that:

All residence halls and GC&SU buildings are smoke-free. Smoking is prohibited throughout the residence halls, public areas, student rooms, or within 30 feet of a residence hall.

Is the area outside of classroom buildings not considered a public area? The regulations are very unclear and obviously lack enforcement if I am forced to breathe in this unclean air anytime I want to step outside one of the campus buildings. Does the school care so little for student,s well-being that it is willing to be silent and let many of us suffer from secondhand smoke? Unfortunately, it appears so.

Loren Elliot
Junior
Mass Communication

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 12 2004. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry