Jump to full article: Des Moines (IA) Register, 2009-09-04
Author: JOSH O'LEARY * Iowa City Press-Citizen
Intro: Dozens of cigarette butts were mashed into the concrete, and the no-smoking signs were charred with the black residue of snuffed-out tobacco.
The evidence of smoking in the University of Iowa Hospitals parking ramp was easy to spot. Finding the smokers themselves was harder.
Smoking was banned at the hospital complex in 2006, and a U of I campuswide ban was implemented in concert with enactment of the Iowa Smokefree Air Act in July 2008. Campus police issued warnings to violators during the first year of the ban; now they are writing citations.
Since July, U of I police have cited 15 people for smoking on campus. One-third of the citations were issued at the hospital's Parking Ramp 2. Citations carry a $50 fine.
While the ban hasn't eliminated smoking on campus, it has helped decrease it, said U of I Public Safety Director Chuck Green.
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