 "Photo: Chi Meng-Tsen | Chronicle photo")
You could be at risk of getting heart disease just from the air you breathe here on campus.
CSUSB’s Student Taskforce Against Tobacco (STAT) and the Student Health Center are working hard with the intent of all ‘Yotes leading longer, healthier lives.
Secondhand smoke causes around 46,000 heart-disease deaths of nonsmokers annually, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Currently, CSUSB policy prevents smoking within 20 feet of buildings, a policy that students at a recent STAT meeting said many students just don’t follow.
STAT literature points out that as even a nonsmoking student, you “are exposed to smoke on campus as you enter and exit buildings, where smoking is most heavily concentrated and from the drifts of smoke by those who smoke and walk.”
Further, on average over 100 children visit our campus every day to introduce them to the college experience. STAT members think that smoking on campus sends the wrong message to those students who are encouraged to follow in the footsteps of current college students.
The Surgeon General concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Cigarette smoke respects no boundaries of walkways, windows or doorways.
STAT is currently working with the faculty senate to establish a new non-smoking campus policy that STAT has proposed.
Under this policy smoking on campus will only be allowed in designated areas. Other ash cans around campus will be removed and “No Smoking” signs would be displayed throughout campus areas.
The population of smokers on campus is small in comparison to those who don't smoke. However, a smoke-free campus could help smokers too, perhaps even more than nonsmokers.
One student at the STAT meeting said, “We’re having designated areas delineated in the proposal. We are having resources for individuals who do smoke, so we’re not just letting them know; ‘no, you can’t smoke here,’ and the Health Center can recommend different places and options they can use to help them out."
Still, STAT says the proposal is only intended to protect nonsmokers’ health and meant to protect their rights, not impede anyone else’s.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found secondhand tobacco smoke to be a risk to public health, and classified secondhand smoke as a group “A” carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen.
If STAT has their way, those carcinogens won’t be lurking around campus anymore.
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