Ban on smoking unlikely

After Carnegie Mellon University proposed a stricter campus-wide tobacco policy that would… After Carnegie Mellon University proposed a stricter campus-wide tobacco policy that would include an indoor and outdoor smoking ban, some may wonder if Pitt will follow CMU’s lead.

According to John Fedele, assistant director of news for Pitt, the answer is no.

“We are not considering any changes,” Fedele said. “Our current policy satisfies county regulation and appears to work well.”

Current Pitt policy prohibits smoking “in all University owned and leased facilities, including residence halls and off-campus housing facilities, and in all University vehicles, including motor pool vehicles, campus buses, and vans,” according to the University’s Web site. Unlike the proposed policy at CMU, the current Pitt policy does not prohibit smoking outdoors or near campus building entrances.

CMU is in the “investigative stage” of a possible campus-wide smoking ban, according to Anita Barkin, director of Student Health Services at Carnegie Mellon University. If enacted, the use of tobacco products will ultimately be prohibited on all CMU campus property, inside and out, Barkin confirmed. In addition, CMU publications and campus convenience stores will be unable to advertise and distribute tobacco products.

“Good we don’t go to CMU,” Pitt sophomore Marine Leisy said as she puffed a Marlboro cigarette outside the Cathedral Tuesday afternoon.

Nonsmokers might feel differently. “Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year,” the American Lung Association noted, an estimate equivalent to roughly 10 deaths per day.

Because of Pitt’s location, Elizabeth Wettick, senior physician at Pitt’s Student Health Services, believes it will be “much more difficult [to] enact and enforce a smoking ban.”

However, she supports preventing secondhand exposure to nonsmokers.

“There needs to be a perimeter outside buildings and designated smoking areas,” Wettick stated.

Wettick sees firsthand the adverse affects of smoking.

“Students who smoke [have] lingering upper respiratory infections and cough or asthma. Also, a big concern is the addiction, which gets harder to overcome the longer students smoke, and the long term consequences of tobacco use are much more serious,” Wettick added.

“I’m against smoking, so I think [a smoking ban] is great,” Pitt varsity basketball player Aaron Gray, a senior, said.

“Anything that helps to not pollute the air can’t be bad,” he added.

A smoke-free campus, “would be awesome” and a tobacco ban “is benefiting [smokers] in the long-run, so I have no sympathy,” said Erich Sabo, another nonsmoker and Pitt senior.

A stricter tobacco policy would promote a supportive environment for those trying to kick the habit as well as encourage, “positive health behaviors and decrease tobacco use,” said Barkin, who emphasized recent research which indicates that “most students start smoking during college.”

Some smokers agree tobacco policies for the protection of nonsmokers would be tolerable, while others adamantly defend their right to smoke, including Michael Hoffman, a Pitt junior who would “protest against [a smoking ban]” and suggests nonsmokers might want to “hold their breath” if they wish to avoid secondhand smoke in passing.

Reasons for smoking vary among the students.

“I smoke when I’m having a stressful day,” casual smoker and Pitt junior Michael Hurley said.

If enacted, CMU will join other tobacco-free campuses across the nation, such as Clark College in Washington, Gainesville State College in Georgia and Bismarck State College in North Dakota.

Pitt has a program for smokers wanting to quit. The QUIT program provides “strategies to successfully quit smoking,” and “the opportunity to meet with a cessation specialist for an initial session and then follow up weekly,” Wettick said.

For more information on the QUIT program, call (412) 383-1830.