Editor,
I am writing about the ever-controversial smoking issue.
Second-hand smoke is exceptionally hazardous, and, according to the American Lung Association, second-hand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 35,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.
When you smoke, I involuntarily inhale your chemicals, and the smoke can remain in the air hours after cigarettes have been put out. Second-hand smoke can cause or aggravate a wide range of unpleasant health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.
Many campuses have become smoke-free and tobacco-free, including colleges in New Jersey, Maryland, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, New York and Wisconsin. I find it hard to believe that people are arguing against the idea of being healthy.
We live in such a toxic environment, the least people could do is support a smoke-free campus in order to breathe cleaner air.
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It appalls me to think that one Daily Lobo letter writer claimed that it's not the smoke that is killing us - it's the stress, it's the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and it's the red dye No. 2.
When you eat a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and red dye No. 2, it does not affect my health - but as soon as you light a cigarette, I am forced to partake in this deadly activity.
I believe campus smoking is out of control, and more regulation is needed despite adverse reactions to this idea.
Lisa Mullings
UNM alumna
