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The Daily OrangeBurnt Out | University of Miami takes first step in effort to start campus-wide smoking ban
By Fabiola Miranda-Ferra
Posted: 11/10/09, 2:36 AM EST Section: News
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UM opted to convert not only the building and medical center, but also the outside facilities into a smoke-free environment.
"I think it makes sense banning smoking from the medical center, a place that is supposed to promote healthy behavior," said Gabriel Hernandez, a senior biology major at the University of Miami.
The ban will include parking lots, garages, parked cars and the area outside of the Medical Center, according to an article in the university's student newspaper, The Miami Hurricane.
UM administration will consider whether to extend the smoking ban campus-wide, according to the article.
The decision follows a national trend of colleges opting for university smoking bans. Across the country, 441 colleges have adopted 100 percent smoke-free campuses, The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation reported Oct. 6.
The American College Health Association released new guidelines in September urging colleges and universities to adopt stricter policies toward tobacco use on campuses. By 2010, the association looks to reduce cigarette smoking by students to 10.5 percent or less.
UM's initiative to start with the Medical Center marks the first step in a plan to become one of the latest institutions to incorporate a smoke-free ban on the entire campus.
Instead of campus security officials, a group of student and faculty volunteers will be enforcing the new ban, according to The Miami Hurricane.
The volunteers plan create a group of "smoke-free campus ambassadors" that will go around handing the smokers cards that explain the policy and include a number for a hotline that helps smokers quit, The Miami Hurricane reported.
Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor from Boston University's School of Public Health and an advocate for tobacco control, said he believes banning smoking is necessary. But maybe the policy is taking it too far, he said.
"Banning smoking on campus grounds, including parking lots and parked cars, is hardly a necessary measure that is needed to protect nonsmokers from tobacco smoke exposure," Siegel said.
Richard Thurer, senior associate dean of faculty affairs at the Miller School of Medicine and chairman of the smoke-free committee, told The Miami Hurricane the main goal of the policy is to get smokers into quitting programs.
Even though Hernandez, a UM senior, understands the ban on the Medical Center, he believes that banning smoking in the whole campus is taking the policy to an extreme.
"Incorporating a campus ban would create a discrepancy because of the high number of students that smoke," Hernandez said. "It no longer has to do with being in proximity to a health facility, but making it harder for smokers to enjoy a cigarette, which is a freedom of choice."
Siegel, of BU, said banning smoking everywhere on campus goes too far and isn't necessary.
"The fact that smoking is being singled out suggests that what is going on is motivated more by lifestyle disapproval than by any legitimate public health concerns," Siegel said. "The same reasoning would justify bans on eating fast food on campus or drinking alcohol."
famirand@syr.edu
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