“Smoking isn’t going to kill you if you stop, it’ll kill you if you smoke,” said Sophie Chin, 27, public relations major and non-smoker.
Students like Chin support the new smoking ban on campus.
Beatrice Alcala, Mountaineer
The smoking ban was created by the Associated Students after a survey was posted on Banner which showed that 15.8 percent of students smoke,And 84.2 percent did not. As a result, the majority of students, 40.8 percent, supported a smoking ban that will place limitations on areas for smokers to smoke.
Jesus Alex Mendoza, president of the Associated Student body, said that Mt. SAC President Bill Scroggins has created a special task force to build certain regulations that address both the concerns and interests of the student body and staff, particularly in regards to smoking and its health effects.
“We understand that smoking creates an unpleasant environment in school premises,” Mendoza said. “This practice is accountable for several illnesses such as cancer, long-term respiratory diseases, and heart disease.”
According to the American Cancer Society’s website at cancer.org, a report conducted in 1987 concluded that cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality, or death, in the United States, accounting for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths. Today, the site reported that smoking cigarettes kills more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
As a non-smoker, Chin said that smokers are disrespectful and that she would appreciate if they took into consideration the non-smokers around them.
“They don’t care about blowing smoke in people’s faces. People smoke around the entrances when they’re not supposed to,” said Chin. “It’s annoying because smoke gets blown in my face.” The resolution proposes the campus remain smoke-free with the exception of parking lots. Some students disagreed with the ban.
Toni Carbajal, 32, psychology and art major, said she believes that the proposal is unfair.
“People are addicted,” Carbajal said. “They can’t help it.”
Carbajal has been smoking since she was 14 and has been addicted to cigarettes for the past seven years. She added that the dilemma of having to walk to the parking lots over a five-minute break between classes just to smoke one cigarette is unrealistic.
“I think it is going to make people late to class, and divide more people because all the smokers are going to be in the parking lot,” Carbajal said. “I don’t feel like being separated from my non-smoking friends.”
Despite the concerns of smokers like Carbajal Edwin Romero, student activities coordinator, said that A.S. cannot create the rules in regards to the ban.
“A.S. doesn’t create the rules, they make recommendations,” Romero said. “They can’t enforce the smoking ban.”
Some students urge for tolerance to be exercised.
“You don’t have to stand by them,” Carbajal said about smokers.
“We can just stand by ashtrays and throw our ash away,” Carbajal said. “The action of the school is a bit extreme.”
The current status of the ban and when it will come into effect are still being arranged.
- Ugo Ofo
Staff Writer
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IMPLEMENT THE SMOKING BAN ASAP PLEASE!
As a non smoking student at mt. Sac I am astonished, and as an american citizen I am enraged/ashamed at the fact that this “ban” is even being considered. The ignorant simpleton who began this needs to find a hobby or spend more time on there studies and less time on inconveniencing the rest of us.
Hmm I’m not a smoker but Jesus talk about taking away the rights of the minority.
as a student with respiratory problems i actually find it very irritating when people are smoking ciggs around me. i feel like i can barelly breathe and it doesnt help when im walking up to parking lot H. honestly, whats the big deal if the smokers just go to designated areas? like how an amusement park has their designated areas? also how is it fair to me (and others) when i finally walk into the classroom and sitting there trying to catch breath because we had to walk past at LEAST 3 people smoking while walking to class. just doesnt seem fair to me.
We should remember that other drugs are not allowed on campus, not even alcohol. So why do we need cigarettes on campus then? Furthermore, if people can’t go a few hours without their fix, perhaps they should start cutting down, for their health and for their wallet.
They should implement areas where people can smoke. The other day at Prime Stop, I saw five other people smoking in areas that are forbidden, they at least a good two feet away from the coffee shop’s entrance.
As for Raul’s comment, the proposal may seem inane, but we must also consider the health of others and it is rude to have to breath that 97+ carcinogen smoke. If you were to see how littered is the campus all because people are lighting fags in the corridors, restaurant entrances, and student shops. That is why this gentlemen decided to make such proposal, it is because of the fact that the school is filled with silly vices. WE NEED THIS CAMPUS SUBSTANCE FREE!
PLEASE BAN SMOKING, US NON SMOKERS CHOOSE NOT TO SMOKE SO WHY ARE WE FORCED TO INHALE SECOND HAND SMOKE!
This is a really good idea and would not have to be enforced if smokers were not completely blind to others around them and how it effects them.
Well the majority of smokers throw their cigarette butts on the floor. Also, break the rules. I always see smoker smoking were they’re not supposed to be smoking. It smells like crap and is not good for the ppl that have to suffer smelling it.
I think its a good idea. It will make the campus look a lot better and the majority of the students/staff happy.
I bet if it wasnt for all you smokers littering then it wouldnt be a problem, but considering most smokers litter you klowns put this on yourself.
I bet if the smokers didnt litter so much it wouldnt be a problem. You guys put this own yourselfs.
How about we designate an area for the non smokers
I was smoking right by the ash tray and a girl comes and sits next to me and fake coughs and complains to her friend.
I am very polite not to smoke next to someone.
Non smokers can be intolerant and rude sometimes even of the polite smokers
I am a non smoker and I see people smoking outside all the time. I never smell it, it doesn’t bother me. There is too much fresh air outside for the smoke to actually affect you in any way. I think these kids are just complaining to complain. If you don’t like it go inside where smokers aren’t allowed… The last thing we need is for the government to create more regulations and take away more personal liberities.
I don’t believe smoking should be banned from school, but I do believe that where people smoke should be taken more into consideration. Why not place designated smoking areas rather than ban it? It’s any smoker’s right as a free citizen to smoke as they please, so to ban it would be discriminative, would it not? However, I am a non-smoker just as the majority is, and I think it’s very rude when a smoker decides to blow their smoke in the same direction I am sitting, which is why I believe a designated smoking area should be placed in effect. Somewhere on campus where people can sit and smoke as they wish without bothering others around them. And campus security should enforce it as well, especially considering the outstanding amount of smokers who disregard the “No smoking within 20 feet of this building” sign. Just my two cents.
I believe this is a failure on the part of our our public safety officers. it should be their duty to be patrolling the halls and walkways of the school not only to maintain the safety of the school but to enforce policies (and laws) that keep smokers from feeding their habit within 20 feet of a building entrance. As long as smoking remains legal all smokers have the right to smoke and if us non smokers don’t like it, well T.S. But there are specific laws regarding where a person can smoke, and they need to be followed and enforced. Additionally I believe the school can do a little more in the way of receptacles for the butts. I always see restaurants with bins that are specifically designed to dispose of used cigarettes without starting a fire. Why cant we get those on campus?
Thank You Based God!
I am a non smoker and I 100% believe that smoking should be banned from the Mt. SAC campus Smoking is the leading cause of cancer and cancer related deaths. Smoking leads to many cancers like; cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, and cervix. it also cause heart disease, stroke, and many other types of arterial diseases. The second hand smoke that nonsmokers try to avoid also causes severe damage. The main cancer that nonsmokers are more at risk for contracting is lung cancer (20 to 30% higher risk of getting it). I for one, would rather not die of cancer.
It is true that smokers have a right to smoke however, non-smokers have the right to clean and pure air. And the right to clean and pure air trumps the right to smoke. In other words, a non-smoker’s right to clean and pure air is more important than an individual’s right to smoke. This should be a non-smoking campus, people come here to learn, not socialize or “relax” with cigarettes. If your lifestyle is such that you can’t physically go without a cigarette while at school, well then you have some serious mental health issues that need to be addressed. I’m sick of being stuck walking behind a slow walking smoker or climbing smoke filled staircases. At the very least, more policing of areas where smoking is prohibited should take place.
@ Raul– maybe YOU should spend more time on YOUR studies, it’s “their studies” NOT “there studies.”
@Somebody- Way to go clouding the issue by throwing “Jesus” into the mix and alluding to a pro Christian agenda.
@RP- Have you never walked behind somebody down a path at school smoking? It sounds like it. I don’t care how much “free air” there is outside, smoke travels and doesn’t dissipate immediately after contact with the atmosphere, it lingers, which is what non-smokers walk through.
And NO, I don’t want to have to walk through a smoke filled parking lot to get to class, nor do I want to eat my lunch in my car during classes and have to contend with clouds of smoke there either.
The fact that students at Mt. Sac are actually using the arguments of cancer, for their own good, and the majority being in disapproval because they don’t like smoke, as they are non smokers, to support a smoking ban reflects really badly on the education they are receiving and Mt. Sac would definitely be doing harm to it’s reputation as an above average educational institution by acknowledging these complaints as credible. I did not think their was an issue with our history department here at Mt. Sac. and hopefully there isn’t and these people just haven’t taken their American History class yet, but as far as school administrators there is no excuse.
The following WAS an excerpt from “Majority Rule, Minority Rights” on the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs website.
Minorities — whether as a result of ethnic background, religious belief, geographic location, income level, or simply as the losers in elections or political debate — enjoy guaranteed basic human rights that no government, and no majority, elected or not, should remove.
I recommend reading this whole article http://www.joejackson.com/smokingissue.htm
but here are some excerpts that I assure you are only a few of many that would make Mt. Sac look really uneducated if they really passed this ban. Uneducated…ha..at an educational institution, how sad. When the smoke clears from this trend of smoking bashing and people move on to something else, Mt. Sac is going to look kind of sad for jumping on the bandwagon too when it is supposed to be one of the better schools.
The largest study to date on levels of S H S exposure was published by the US National Center for Environmental H ealth, which studied 10,000 exposed nonsmokers for levels of cotinine (a nicotine derivative which is thought to demonstrate the level of tobacco smoke exposure). The mean cotinine level of the nonsmokers was 1/500th of that of the active smoker. And by the way: (a) there are other sources of cotinine, including, for instance, tomatoes, and (b) showing that people have small amounts of cotinine in their blood is not the same as demonstrating that it’s doing them any harm.
Two or three decades ago, the more politically savvy members of the antismoking movement started saying (and this is quite well-documented) that they weren’t going to make much more progress unless they could somehow show that smokers were harming not just themselves but others around them. The war against tobacco could then be escalated to a whole new level. Smokers could be portrayed as at best anti-social and at worst, murderers! Nonsmokers who previously didn’t care much about people smoking around them could be incited to righteous intolerance. As for people who’d always hated smoke – they’re the front line, the hardcore supporters, who don’t care how bad the science is as long as it appears to legitimise their demands for a smoke-free world. This is the basis for a huge upsurge in anti-smoking sentiment and the spread of draconian, anti-democratic smoking bans. And, as many scientists, academics and probably even a few politicians are well aware, it’s pretty much a hoax.
it is a fact that there is not one death certificate, anywhere in the world, stating ‘cause of death: passive smoking.’ Indeed there is not one documented case in which passive smoke has been proven to have killed someone, or even made them seriously ill. H ealth professionals are challenged over and over again to produce one, and consistently fail to do so.
‘Big Pharma’ also gives generously to local governments which take an antismoking stance, and advocacy groups (various heart or lung associations or antismoking groups such as AS H ) seem able to get endless amounts of money for antismoking campaigns from politicians who see ‘public health’ as a good bet, and who don’t question the antismoking agenda. The more such groups exaggerate the danger of whatever they’re crusading against, the more money they get. AS H , in particular, get millions of government pounds to say and do anything they like, including blatantly false propaganda, so long as it’s antismoking.
If smoking is not an individual right because it is harmful to the public health then we should also ban driving to school, because car accidents kill a lot more people than cancer. For instance, in the year 2003 there were 42,884 car fatalities.
Lastly I will give some quotes students should feel passionately about, and should be ashamed of themselves for not knowing better.
The idolization of Big Government as a solution to every problem is itself a kind of religion – one which is not the least interested in respecting others’ rights of dissent or conscience. It is a totalitarian ideology, by which individuals are devalued and their unalienable rights deemed expendable for the “collective good.”
“I think that every true reformer, every real friend of liberty, will agree with me in saying that if we must erect safeguards, they should be rather for the security of the individual than of the mass, and that our chiefest care must be to train the majority to respect the rights of the minority, to prevent the claims of the few from being trampled under foot by the caprice or passion of the many.”
– Richard Cartwright in the Legislative Assembly, Canada, March 9, 1865
This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.
–April 6, 1859 Letter to Henry Pierce
Lance Morrow,
The busybodies have begun to infect American society with a nasty intolerance — a zeal to police the private lives of others and hammer them into standard forms — A Nation of Finger Pointers.
The purpose of education is to make the choices clear to people, not to make the choices for people. — Peter Mc Williams
Individual freedom is the very foundation of our country. The American people should not accept legislators who pass laws that take liberty away while claiming to do good. History has shown this to be the easy road to power for tyrants.