Column: Middle Ground
My friend told me the other day that he wants to name his son “Fumar.” That way when he grows up and he takes him out to a restaurant or some other place, they might come across a sign that says, “No Fumar.” Then he would tell him, “Sorry bud, I guess you’re not welcome here.”
He might cry for awhile, but in the end, I think he would appreciate such a well-planned joke.
For those of you who don’t hablar espanol, “fumar” is Spanish for “smoking.”
“No Smoking.” You don’t really ever see that sign around campus these days. Except for the interior of university buildings, it seems like smokers are welcomed on USU’s campus.
And honestly, it really doesn’t bother me, either. Except in one place: the Taggart Student Center Patio.
The TSC is the most visited of any other building on campus. Among other things, the school’s Post Office, Bookstore and Hub are located there. With a well-visited computer lab also inside, students pass through the TSC quite often, as they should. It is a student center, after all.
And unless you go completely out of your way (through the Bookstore’s south exit where I don’t think they welcome the traffic, or up to the second floor and then back down again), you have to cross through the Smoker’s Patio.
Most of us are in a rush to class, so we just hold our breath for a few seconds as we weave through the tables. But should we have to? Don’t we have just as much a right to clean air as they do to smoke?
Day after day after day of second-hand smoke for even just a few seconds starts to add up.
Suppose you passed by the Smoker’s Patio for only five smoke-filled seconds once each school day (I don’t feel that this is an unfair assumption either) during your four years at USU. By the time you get your degree, you will have inhaled nearly an hour’s worth of second-hand smoke just from that little patio.
It’s not a lot, but I’d rather not have it at all.
So, ban smoking on the TSC Patio. The Utah Clean Air Act of 1995 requires that smoking be prohibited within 25 feet of building entrances, exits, air-intakes or windows that can be opened. By strict definition, we are complying with that law. But why not go further than just the bare bones of the law and truly try to protect USU students and faculty from second-hand smoke? Allow smoking, but allow it in areas that do not have so much pedestrian traffic.
Our football team’s opponent this weekend, Hawai’i, instituted such a ban on their campus just two years ago. Their report said that smoking is prohibited in the following areas among others, “building, courtyards, breezeways and terraces, on exterior stairways and access ramps and outdoor dining patios.”
At the TSC Patio, ashtrays are provided on the tables. It’s like we’re almost encouraging people to smoke-or at least facilitating them and the second-hand smoke they create.
The American Heart Association reports that second-hand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals and at least 40 known carcinogens. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration qualifies second-hand smoke as a potential cancer-carrying agent. A study by the American Heart Association also reported that second-hand smoke nearly doubles the risk of having a heart attack.
Now, a little second-hand smoke doesn’t hurt anyone all that much. But should we have to deal with it at all? It is not an isolated incident, either. Every day, the place is covered with people just smoking away. That is their choice. But those going through the only first floor entrance/exit on that side of the school’s most visited building have to deal with it, too. Save your smokes for another day or another place.
Don’t ban smoking entirely on USU’s campus. But do stop it on the TSC Patio.
Even if it does offend kids named “Fumar.”
Jon Cox is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to jcox@cc.usu.edu.