LETTER: Smoking ban a health issue
To the editor:
The author of the letter to the editor published on Wednesday, Oct. 15 certainly misunderstands the point of having a designated area for smoking. The proposal of a tobacco policy does not have the intention of creating a divide between smokers and non-smokers, nor to force people to conform to the moral beliefs of others. It is not because of intolerance of others beliefs either, as the author stated.
Proposing a designated smoking is a health and wellness issue and is designed to help everyone on campus enjoy a better and healthier life. Last Monday’s front page story regarding tobacco policy stated that 95 percent of USU students have never smoked, and 76.9 percent favor a tobacco policy. I imagine many of these students do not like being subject to secondhand smoke, not just because of the smell, but for the health risks.
According to the National Cancer Institute, “inhaling secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults (and) approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year among adult nonsmokers in the United States as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke … There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.” (See www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/ETS).
Don’t want to believe the Cancer Institute? Philip Morris, a well known tobacco company, also recognizes the dire effects of secondhand smoke. On its Web site, it states that the health risks presented by secondhand smoke “warrant(s) measures that regulate cigarette smoking in public places.”
The evidence is clear and incontrovertible: cigarette smoke is a serious risk not only to smokers, but to those around them due to secondhand smoke. On a university campus, do we not want to promote a healthy environment for everyone who comes to learn? That is the purpose of a tobacco policy; not to divide, but to enhance the quality of life that students experience here at Utah State.
Justin Caplin