OUR VIEW: Ashtray placement could clean up air

Wednesday is National Kick Butts Day, and that doesn’t refer to a gluteus maximus. It’s a day dedicated to educating people about the dangers of smoking.

To celebrate, USU’s tobacco task force is making an effort to teach smokers about the no-smoking zone around building entrances. Chalk lines will be drawn 25 feet away from the entrances of major campus buildings. Smokers who stay outside the lines will be given Hazel’s coupons. Event organizers say smokers who cross the line will not be fined – at least not for now. The purpose of the event is to educate people about the rule.

It’s about time. The 25-foot rule is constantly violated on campus, especially around the Taggart Student Center. But the rule is so poorly enforced, smokers can hardly be blamed for fudging on it on a regular basis.

It’s also rather silly that ashtrays are located right next to entrances. Smokers heading inside a building will have to drop their cigarette 25 feet away, put it out with their foot, and then pick it up and put it in the ashtray since the presence of a “lighted tobacco product” is prohibited where the ashtray is. Perhaps the placement of ashtrays needs to be rethought.

It’s great that the tobacco task force is making an effort to warn smokers that they can potentially be fined up to $100 for violations of Utah’s Indoor Clean Air Act. There’s no point in having a law no one obeys or enforces.