USU launching tobacco awareness campaign
USU Tobacco Coordinator Suzanne Poindexter and the Tobacco Task Force are currently drafting a proposal to enforce current tobacco regulations and launch an awareness campaign on campus.
Current Utah law prohibits smoking within 25 feet of a building entrance, but Poindexter said not many students follow or are aware of this law. In a Fall 2006 survey conducted by the Tobacco Task Force on the TSC patio, it was found that during a four-hour period, three out of 150 smokers obeyed the 25-foot law, and 522 people said they passed smokers while entering the TSC.
The new regulations proposed by Poindexter would ban smoking in designated “high-traffic” areas as well as other places where smokers are highly visible.
“If students are more aware and can help enforce this, it will become a social norm,” Poindexter said. “We are addressing clean air and protection from secondhand smoke, not targeting smokers.”
Poindexter said she learned at a recent conference that secondhand smoke can cause more damage than smoking does to the smoker. This is because the smoker inhales hot smoke, which the lungs repel somewhat, while cooled smoke inhaled secondhand can more deeply penetrate the lungs.
The proposed regulations would also increase advertising about this and other secondhand smoke dangers, and they would work on decreasing the already limited tobacco advertisements on campus.
“Not a lot of tobacco companies have ads on our campus, though, so that’s not a huge part of it,” Poindexter said.
If passed, the proposal would also ban tobacco sales on campus. Poindexter said “it wouldn’t have a huge impact” because the Quick Stop on the first floor of the TSC is the only place that currently sells cigarettes on campus.
“That may affect some revenue at dining services, but we’re here to make students aware of the dangers they are exposed to on campus,” Poindexter said. “And we want the students to help enforce it.”
Poindexter, a USU graduate in public health, works under an education grant in the Student Health and Wellness Center to raise awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke and provide tobacco education.
The Tobacco Task Force averages about 12 members and includes students as well as professors and other faculty.
The initial proposal will be presented in about a month, and Poindexter said she hopes for ASUSU and student body support.
“We’d love to have more student involvement,” Poindexter said. Interested students or faculty can e-mail spoindexter@cc.usu.edu.
-chelseyg@cc.usu.edu