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Plan would limit smoking at Palomar 

Walking across the Palomar College main campus can seem like a stroll backward in time, to an era of prevalent and loosely restricted smoking.

But students who have pushed for two years to keep the clouds of secondhand smoke limited to a few outdoor areas have cleared a major hurdle, despite objections from faculty and staff labor groups.

If approved by the community college district board of trustees, the proposal would make five designated smoking areas the only places on campus where it is permissible to light up.

The proposed policy was approved on a 13-5 vote of the college's Strategic Planning Council this week.

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• Smoking How much will it end up costing you? 

Smokers aren't the only ones who feel the costs of smoking.

"Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure cost the state of Louisiana $3 billion per year in health care costs and lost productivity," says Carrie Broussard of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living.

TFL estimated in 2005 that of the $1.47 billion in health care costs directly caused by smoking in Louisiana, $663 million was covered by the taxpayer-funded state Medicaid program. Louisiana residents' total state and federal tax burden used to address problems caused by smoking averaged out to $626 per household. And those numbers aren't including health-care costs caused by secondhand smoke, cigar and pipe smoking or chewing tobacco.

You probably don't even want to think about the non-health-related costs: not just lost productivity, but property losses in fires caused by smoking (over $500 million -- not to mention more than 1000 deaths -- across the country each year) and cleaning and maintenance costs made necessary by tobacco smoke and cigarette litter (around $4 billion nationwide just for commercial establishments). . . .

Occasional smokers are often college students -- a 2007 report by the American College Health Association found that while only 10 percent of students smoke regularly, 30 perent smoke intermittently. And with tobacco companies facing increasing criticism for aiming advertisements at children, they've started targeting the 18-to-24-year-old demographic -- partly by advertising aggressively in environments where college-age intermittent smokers are most likely to indulge, such as bars and nightclubs.

"Intermittent smokers usually believe that they can stop smoking at any time and often think that they will quit after college," says David, but they're usually wrong. . . .

Today, in her work as development director with the Acadiana Arts Council, Moss makes it a priority to work to promote smoke-free venues where Acadiana residents can go to hear musical performances without worrying about secondhand smoke exposure.

Interested in joining the fight? Consider getting involved with the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network (acscan.org) or the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (tobaccofreeliving.org)

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State law speeds up UI smoking ban  

IOWA CITY -- The University of Iowa is getting its campus ready to go smoke free sooner than originally planned because of the statewide smoking ban that begins July 1.

"Really what we've done is just accelerated our timeline to be able to address that throughout the next few weeks, months," said Joni Troester, director of UI Wellness and co-chair of the school's Smoking Policy Implementation Committee.

In February, UI President Sally Mason approved recommendations from a task force to ban smoking everywhere on campus by July 1, 2009.

That will now happen one year earlier to fall in line with the statewide ban on smoking in many public places that Gov. Chet Culver signed into law last month.

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• Waterpipe Smoking on College Campuses May Contribute to Growing Public Health Proble 

More and more U.S. college students are smoking tobacco using waterpipes – or hookahs – and it’s becoming a growing public health issue, according to a new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher.

The findings offer important insight into the prevalence and perceptions related to waterpipe tobacco smokers and are reported in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The article is also featured in an editorial in the same issue.

“These results should serve as an alarm bell to anyone interested in public health in the United States. Preventing tobacco-caused death and disease means remaining alert to new forms of tobacco smoking and then understanding the health risks of these new forms and communicating these risks to public health workers, policy makers, and to smokers themselves,” said principal investigator Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., associate professor in the VCU Department of Psychology. . . .

According to Eissenberg, current and prospective waterpipe tobacco smokers should be made aware that waterpipe tobacco smoking is not as benign as they might think. Waterpipe and cigarette smoke contains some of the same toxins -- disease-causing tar and carbon monoxide, as well as dependence-producing nicotine. Additionally, the exposure to these toxins through waterpipe smoking may be greater due to longer periods of use.

Further, smokers take more and larger puffs with waterpipes, leading to inhalation of 100 times more smoke from a single waterpipe use episode relative to a single cigarette.

Through a cross-sectional study, approximately 744 students, mostly between the ages of 18 and 21, completed an Internet survey that included questions about demographics, tobacco use, risk perceptions and perceived social acceptability.

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State law speeds up UI smoking ban 

The University of Iowa is getting its campus ready to go smoke free sooner than originally planned because of the statewide smoking ban that begins July 1.

"Really what we've done is just accelerated our timeline to be able to address that throughout the next few weeks, months," said Joni Troester, director of UI Wellness and co-chair of the school's Smoking Policy Implementation Committee.

In February, UI President Sally Mason approved recommendations from a task force to ban smoking everywhere on campus by July 1, 2009.

That will now happen one year earlier to fall in line with the statewide ban on smoking in many public places that Gov. Chet Culver signed into law last month.

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LETTER to the Editor: Director clears up allegations of Res. Life seeking campus-wide smoking ban 

After reading your editorial in the April 25 edition, I implore you to correct and clarify the statements made about the Pershing smoking policy. Your editorial asked “someone” to listen to students. In fact, we listened: to the many residents who asked us remedy the situation, which we did and have already been thanked for doing so; . . .

Only after repeated efforts to address the problem through encouragement, education and requests for actual enforcement of the UMHC smoking policy proved ineffective did we decide on this restriction. For clarification, “the administration” for MU and UMHC are NOT the same. The UMHC administration bears responsibility for hospital employees but although under not any duty to do so, Residential Life (which reports to the MU administration) is providing a smoking area in our efforts to be “good neighbors.” Through this policy, we are finding a way to both provide space for our residents who smoke — picnic tables in the courtyard — while still honoring the requests of those students who do not smoke. Lastly, the conspiracy theory about a subversive attempt to pilot a campus-wide smoking ban is inventing news, not reporting it.

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U of Iowa steps up campus-wide smoking ban  

The University of Iowa is getting ready to go smoke free -- a year ahead of schedule.

The time table has been moved up because of the statewide public smoking that starts July 1.

In February, university President Sally Mason approved recommendations from a task force to ban smoking campuswide by July 1, 2009. That will now happen a year earlier to coincide with the statewide ban.

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U Of Iowa Smoking Ban 

The University of Iowa is getting ready to go smoke free _ a year ahead of schedule. The time table has been moved up because of the statewide public smoking that starts July 1.

In February, university President Sally Mason approved recommendations from a task force to ban smoking campuswide by July 1, 2009. That will now happen a year earlier to coincide with the statewide ban.

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EDITORIAL: The case for a tobacco-free campus 

Gone, thankfully, are the days when a popular, exquisitely cool University of Oregon professor was known for chain-smoking Gauloises throughout his lectures on Jean-Paul Sartre.

Sartre, the professor was fond of pointing out, smoked the French-made Gauloises, too.

Years later, of course, Sartre died of a lung tumor, people got smarter about the hazards of tobacco and professors and students are mercifully prohibited from lighting up in classrooms at most U.S. colleges. The smokers have been moved outdoors.

At Portland Community College, Student Body President Victoria Galanopoulos wants to change that. She and a PCC task force, backed by the American Lung Association of Oregon, want to snuff smoking anywhere on the college's campuses, including the outdoor entryways where smokers now gather.

PCC administrators should support steps that begin moving the college toward that worthy goal.

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UofT to dump tobacco investments  

The University of Toronto is the latest university to alter its investment portfolio, citing ethical concerns. With yesterday's announcement to divest millions in tobacco stocks, U of T became the first educational institution in Canada to boycott the tobacco industry.

A student activist who successfully campaigned to have U of T sell off its tobacco investments says other Canadian schools should follow suit and end the "unethical practice."

"We hope that other institutions will get a clear message that investing in tobacco companies is an unethical practice and it's something that should not be done," Tyler Ward, president of Education Bringing Youth Tobacco Truths(E-BUTT).

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Life: Colleges aim to tame smoking on campus  

Fullerton College passed a ban for students earlier this month, but it's is only the latest among dozens of two-year schools around the country now nixing tobacco on campus. Even one community college in North Carolina - epicenter of the tobacco industry - is in the process of going smoke-free.

"California is leading the nation, definitely," said Kimberlee Homer Vagadori, college project coordinator for the California Youth Advocacy Network. "We have a lot more campuses and a lot more work to be done."

Unsurprisingly, many smokers are skeptical if not downright hostile to the changes.

"People who want to smoke are going to do it anyway," Fullerton College student Melissa Baker, 19, said. . . .

Around the country, other colleges from Maine to New Jersey to Missouri are also becoming smoke-free.

"The tobacco-free campus movement is real and is changing the way community college students, faculty and staff are thinking about a healthy campus environment," said Ty Patterson, vice president of student services at Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri. . . .

The American Cancer Society publishes a how-to guide for campuses that want to prohibit smoking. Among the recommendations: Find students to spearhead the effort. Phase it in slowly. Combine it with stop-smoking programs.

There's a hierarchy of non-smoking campuses. In California, for example, nearly 40 of the 110 community colleges require outdoor smoking to be limited to designated areas.

Other schools ban smoking on the main campus but permit it in parking lots

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ISU's smoking policy committee to submit report during summer  

As the academic year nears its end, ISU's smoking policy review committee is preparing to submit a report to the Board of Trustees. This report will contain statistics derived from campus polls regarding the current smoking policy but not a specific recommendation of reform.

The future of the smoking policy is now in the hands of the smoking policy review committee, the Board of Trustees and most importantly, the president of the university.

Information regarding the results of the campus polls is not to be disclosed until next semester, but the project is making headway.

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Smoking scoff laws at PBAU may be forced to quit refuge 

Palm Beach Atlantic University's request for ideas on what to do with the smokers wall on its downtown West Palm Beach campus generated many anonymous comments on the alternative student Web site www.thebacon.org. . . .

But school officials, concerned about student health and how the butt-laden sidewalk and its patrons look to potential recruits, are brainstorming ideas that may end the era of the smokers wall.

A survey was sent to students for their thoughts, and although the results have yet to be tallied, PBAU's health and wellness director, Vince Diller, said new rules could go into effect over summer break.

"I've been here four years, and smokers wall has been on my list since I've been here," he said.

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WSU grounds worker puts a month’s worth of cigarette trash on display  

Bryce Fogelson doesn't mind smokers, but he hates what they leave behind.

Fogelson finds cigarette butts littered everywhere on the Winona State University campus -- in the cracks of sidewalks, in the mulch of rock gardens and flicked haphazardly near the hundred or so ashtray receptacles outside the entrance of nearly every campus building. . . .

The full-time WSU senior and part-time campus maintenance worker -- a job funded by taxpayers -- sucks up the littered butts with a vacuum reverse blower.

But after three years on cigarette patrol, he's seen enough.

Fogelson collected thousands of stray cigarette butts littering the campus over the past month and put the heaping pile on display for his fellow students Thursday in WSU's Kryzsko Commons. All brands -- the camel and cowboy included -- were well-represented.

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Anti-Littering Art 

A student from Winona State University is making a statement by taking cigarette butts indoors.

More than 2,000 cigarette butts are now on display at Winona State University.

This after a part-time maintenance worker and a student at Winona State became frustrated at having to cleaning up all the cigarette butts around campus.

"I just want to show people that it isn't alright to litter regardless of how big or small the thing that you're throwing on the ground," says Bryce Fogelson.

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