Tobacco.org

Ministry ban in place 

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 6: Visiting your daughter or son at school? Then better stub out that cigarette and throw away the gutkha packet.

State's school and college campuses will soon be tobacco free zones, according to a notification that has been sent to the state education department. The news of the notification was confirmed by health minister Prasanna Acharaya today.

The move came after Union health ministry imposed a guideline prohibiting sale and consumption of tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutes.

"Teachers, parents or visitors on campuses will have to abide by the rule, along with students," said a visibly elated anti-tobacco activist Itishree Kanungo of Aparajita.

"An alarming proportion of school personnel use tobacco and students often imitate them. More alarmingly, there has been an increasing rise of tobacco use among girls. The ban should help prevent the birth of more addicts," she added.

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Orissa Government bans smoking in schools, colleges 

Bhubaneswar: In a significant development Orissa government has decided to impose ban on smoking on campuses of schools and colleges. This was said by health minister Prasanna Acharya. Health minister Acharya says, apart from the law, a public awareness is also necessary to implement such thing. We are going to launch a campaign in this regard soon. According to Acharya, the law to ban smoking in educational institutions would be put into effect from this month and the enforcement squad would ensure its proper implementation.

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Programs continue to help community quit 

Under the University's tobacco-free initiative, smoking and tobacco use will be prohibited in University-owned and -managed properties beginning July 1, 2010.

Research shows tobacco use constitutes a significant health hazard.

With this initiative, the University continues its tradition of being a leader on important social and health issues, and of translating knowledge gained through research into practice.

To help the WUSTL community prepare for the change and help those who wish to become tobacco-free, the University is working collaboratively with the community to support tobacco-use cessation efforts.

Myriad programs and events are offered to help students, faculty and staff quit smoking and using tobacco products, continuing this month with the Great American Smokeout Nov. 19. . . .

Throughout the Danforth Campus Nov. 19, WUSTL Dining Services will sell a special "Crudite to Go Cup" -- carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatos, zucchini, squash and ranch dip -- to help tobacco users make it through the day without tobacco.

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• SGA discusses smoking restrictions  

On Tuesday, the Student Government Association (SGA) considered a resolution on the policies proposed by Hopkins Kicks Butts that would restrict smoking on campus.

The resolution concluded that while the SGA supports efforts to promote the hazards of secondhand smoke, evidence on how these proposals would provide positive health benefits needs to be provided.

Part of the Hopkins Kicks Butts (HKB) proposal would implement a campus-wide ban on tobacco products, which would be enforced by peer-policing and a $15 ban per violation. The student organization has also called for smoking to be restricted to 50-foot zones.

"The public health objective says that smoking is harmful. What [this group] proposed is not practical," freshman class president Wyatt Larkin said.

He suggested that policymakers should determine if smoking is a threat to student health, rather than relying on the claims made by the HKB Web site, which Larkin said, "don't really add up." . . .

The SGA concluded the meeting with a motion to table the proposal until next week's meeting, which is scheduled to be in Mason Hall at 7 p.m.

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College to implement new smoking restrictions  

Based on a recent survey of Lone Star College-Kingwood students, faculty and employees and in light of new information about the increasing health risks of second-hand smoke, administrators have approved a new smoking ban policy to be implemented on campus. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, smoking will only be allowed in three designated smoking shelters, located by the parking lots where others will not have to be exposed to second-hand smoke.

“When our campus conducted its own smoking survey in September, almost 400 students and employees responded,” said LSC-Kingwood President Dr. Katherine Persson. “Eighty-three percent of the respondents indicated that second-hand smoke was a concern for them with 73 percent of the respondents concerned about long-term health effects. While the respondents’ preferred smoking policy is to ban smoking everywhere on the LSC-Kingwood campus, more indicated that the best policy for us is to allow smoking only in shelters built for that purpose.”

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Mesa State smoking-policy options aired 

Mesa State College Associated Student Government members presented three potential tobacco policies Thursday evening in a campus lecture hall.

The first option bans all tobacco products, including chewing tobacco, cigars and menthol, clove or regular cigarettes, from campus property. Implementing the option would include a phase-in process with stages for education about the ban, a smoking-cessation program and then enforcement.

A second possibility is a ban of all tobacco products from all but a few designated smoking areas. These areas would have benches and ashtrays for smokers. Designated smoking areas have not been decided, but the option would place smoking areas roughly east of the academic classroom building, west of Houston Hall and in a parking lot north of the new student center.

The final option would entail doing a better job of enforcing the existing policy of keeping smokers at least 30 feet away from all building entrances.

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Mesa State tobacco ban meetings tonight, Thursday 

Mesa State College Associated Student Government members will sponsor forums at 6 tonight and 6 p.m. Thursday to discuss three potential on-campus tobacco policies.

The meetings will take place in the Wubben Weldon lecture hall.

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Prospective smoking ban in the works  

A campus-wide smoke ban is being discussed in an ASG committee meeting.

At least 365 campuses in the United States are smoke-free, according to the 2009 report taken by American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.

ASG Sen. Dallen Terrell, who is researching the potential legislation, said he wants Texas State to become 366th. He said the initiative for a campus-wide smoke ban is meant to direct and advise students to healthier lifestyles. Terrell said people who smoke on-campus absorb efforts for the university’s beautification and intrude on students’ right to a healthy, intellectually conducive environment.

“When you obtrude on others rights (to clean air), your rights normally cease,” Terrell said. “Infamous smoking tables like the ones outside Elliot Hall blatantly disregard that a smoking policy even exists.”

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WILLIAMS: Ban and advocates need something stronger for support 

The question on many minds these days is, what’s up with Purdue’s proposed campus-wide smoking ban? To me, it’s just showing a dog (Purdue and secondhand-smoke opponents) that’s all bark and no bite. . . .

Let’s be honest, though: how many of you secondhand-smoke-on-campus complainers actually inhale smoke and not just the scent left behind from a cigarette? Don’t know the difference? Well, smoke is defined as a visually present cloud of gas particles produced from burning something; scent is the residual smell the dissipated smoke leaves behind.

Do you know how fast smoke dissipates in the open, outside air? . . .

The long and short of it is the University can’t back up the proposed (or current) policy with enforcement, and policy advocates can’t legitimately back up their secondhand smoke claims. Both entities should stop blowing smoke instead of trying to demonize actual smoke-blowing.

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Santa Fe College rejects campus smoking ban 

Santa Fe College opted not to follow UF's lead by banning smoking on campus.

SFC's College Senate voted 17-9 against a campus-wide ban during its general meeting Tuesday.

Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser said he would not enforce the ban unless the Career Services, College Senate and Student Senate are in all in favor the ban. The College Senate is composed of SFC faculty members, unlike the Student Senate, which voted to oppose the ban last week.

However, all three groups agreed that smoking is a problem at Santa Fe and that regulations must be tightened so people don't abuse the privilege.

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Prop N passes by wide margin  

“We have made a major step forward on cleaner air and obviously a healthy environment for our citizens in the county and city, and hopefully for the whole state in the future,” said County Councilwoman Barbara Fraser, D-University City, who introduced the St. Louis County Council bill that put the smoking ban on the ballot.

Proposition N opponent Bill Hannegan, though disappointed, downplayed the result, saying that “it was always going to be tough in the county” due to its low smoking rate.

Hannegan, who heads the group Keep St. Louis Free, added that “the fight’s not over” and that the opposition could challenge the constitutionality of the casino exemption, bring up a conflict between the two smoking bans and state law, or push to amend the city’s smoking ban. . . .

Proposition N supporters gathered with posters and signs during the Monday rush hour at five street-side locations, including the intersection of Forest Park Parkway and Skinker Boulevard.

More than 200 Saint Louis University medical students and faculty gathered on their campus on Thursday to rally for the ban.

The Washington University community’s highest-profile supporter of the proposition is Martha Bhattacharya, postdoctoral fellow in developmental biology, who served as treasurer of pro-proposition County Citizens for Cleaner Air. Bhattacharya said last week she encouraged students to vote for the measure.

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Santa Fe College faculty senate puts off smoking issue  

The faculty senate of Santa Fe College wants a little more time to decide whether it will support a campus-wide smoking ban.

In Tuesday's faculty senate meeting, the 29-member group voted to create a committee to take a closer look at the issue.

A majority of the faculty representatives in the meeting said they would likely oppose a ban.

In recent weeks the SFC student senate passed a resolution in opposition to making the campus tobacco-free.

Addressing the faculty senate, student senator Eric Florestan said many students polled recently would rather see campus-wide smoking huts moved to accommodate smokers rather than ban the practice all together.

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Delhi University campaign now targets beedi smokers 

The Delhi University Smoke-Free Initiative, after being extended to all DU colleges, has now turned its focus to beedis, as its usage among the youth is increasing.

The primary target of the campaign against beedis, however, would be the non-teaching staff. Beedis were the main agenda in a meeting of nodal officers of the project on October 25.

Every college of the university has a member of the faculty assigned as the nodal officer.

"We'll be targeting karamcharis (workers), who form a significant chunk of the university population. A large number of karamcharis smoke beedis. It has also been noted that rickshaw-pullers, who form the backbone of the DU transport system smoke beedis," said G R Khatri, president, World Lung Foundation (South Asia).

"Nodal officers have been asked to educate smokers that beedis are no less harmful than cigarettes," said Khatri.

"Cutting the source rather than a smoking ban is the aim of the project; and we have been largely successful in doing so. We'll discourage non-teaching staff from smoking on campus," said St Stephen's nodal officer Pankaj Misra.

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KSU bans smoking on campus 

Smokers lighting up a cigarette on the King Saud University (KSU) main campus in Riyadh may end up puffing away a fine of SR500. The cash penalty has come as part of the smoke-free university campaign the university launched on Sunday. The new law prohibits smoking on campus at any time, applying to all university students and staff. Smokers found polluting the campus for the first time will be warned in writing and referred to the Anti-smoking Clinic if willing to quit the habit.

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Task force to examine smoking ban 

A smoking ban resolution passed by West Virginia University's Student Government Association will move to a task force designed to discuss all aspects of a smoking policy at WVU.

Originally, SGA thought the resolution would move on to the WVU Board of Governors, but BOG Chair Carolyn Long said it would be "inappropriate" for the BOG to discuss the resolution before it goes through the task force.

University President James P. Clements said he's listened to the opinion of many students on the smoking ban. Now it's time to move forward, he said.

"We just need to bring the people together at the table and start talking about it," Clements said.

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