Editor,
The University has tried to implement a smoking ban on campus but failed. The issue is yet to be revisited.
Students, staff and organizations on campus should support a proposal for designated smoking areas in an effort to keep everybody happy while moving toward a smoke-free campus. The image of a clean, relaxing, beautiful campus that UNM strives to present to the public is slowly being diminished by the cigarette stubs littering the campus grounds. The potential for dangers, such as fire, increase with every stub that is carelessly flicked away.
Second-hand smoke lingers in the air hours after the cigarette has been extinguished, polluting the air and lungs of passersby. According to the American Lung Association, exposure to second-hand smoke causes about 3,400 deaths by lung cancer and 46,000 deaths by heart disease in adult nonsmokers in the U.S. per year.
UNM can't expect to have a healthy campus population with a high number of smokers and these kinds of statistics. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health reported in the New York Times showed 29 percent of college students smoked in 1999, an increase of 28 percent in six years. While our campus is likely to have different statistics regarding the number of students and staff who smoke, this study shows that smoking is an increasing problem on college campuses.
The president of the Board of Regents stated in an article in the Daily Lobo that "a substantial group of students, faculty and organizations would have to make a proposal" to ban smoking on campus. If this plan had been revisited, an attempt to designate smoking areas instead of completely banning smoking could have been proposed a lot earlier.
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Current facilities and supplies can be used to implement the plan and mark out designated areas. Trash cans or other places to put cigarette stubs can be moved to specific areas. These areas should be semi-sheltered from the elements. However, these areas can be designated where these structures already exist to avoid the cost of building more.
They should be clearly designated and away from doorways and main pathways to avoid pollution. They can be close in order to avoid forcing smokers to walk long distances just to smoke.
The campus population can be notified through e-mails and simple signs if needed. These places will be more likely to help please smokers as well as nonsmokers. Designating smoking areas will help keep UNM campus cleaner, the campus population healthier and everybody happy through compromise instead of treading on personal rights.
K'Lee Ollom
UNM student
