Campuses crack down on smoking

After spending time in the library, students exiting Powell to momentarily dwell in open space and breathe in fresh air are sometimes met instead with puffs of smoke.

Further south on campus, cigarette butts can be found scattered across Kerckhoff Patio where the sight of students sitting around with a cigarette in their hands is not uncommon. Over on the north side of campus, students can be found lighting up while they lounge in the grass of the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden.

Smoking is present on campus both in places where it is permitted and sometimes in places where it is not allowed.

In that respect, UCLA is not unique. According to a study led by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, titled “Monitoring the Future,” in 2005, 36 percent of college students smoked.

But Melissa Murphy, a senior research assistant for the College Tobacco Prevention Resource, said colleges are becoming more responsive to the issue.

As people are becoming aware of the high levels and dangers of smoking, college campuses across the nation are making efforts to create a healthy environment for students, she said.

Since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classified tobacco smoke as a carcinogen in 1993, and the surgeon general identified tobacco as the leading preventable cause of illness and premature death in the country, colleges have been more sensitive to enacting smoking regulations on campus.

The UCLA smoke-free environment policy, in effect since January 2004, states that smoking is prohibited in university buildings and vehicles within 20 feet of a university-building entrance or window.

The policy is enforced by the individual building managers, who post up signs, appoint workers to implement the policy, or designate smoking areas, said Bill Peck, manager of occupational and employee health at the UCLA Office of Environment, Health and Safety.

While signs prohibiting smoking are effective and prominent, designated smoking areas marked with signs reading “Smoking permitted at this area,” as well as ashtrays, accommodate smokers’ needs, Peck said.

“The area across the School of Dentistry on Tiverton (Avenue), the back of Murphy (Hall) and the area near the Engineering Building are places of high smoking levels,” Peck added.

But research shows a majority of UCLA students are not aware of nonsmoking signs, nor are they aware of the policy’s existence.

Studies conducted at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center show that nonsmokers are more aware than smokers of the campus policy, said William McCarthy, an associate professor of public health at the center.

“It would help to have information campaigns to increase smoker awareness,” McCarthy said. “Policy does make a difference. (It) can clean the air.”

While policy is a crucial factor in promoting a smoke-free environment, other elements such as smoking-cessation services, appropriate education, limitations on advertising and marketing are important, Murphy said.

“(Maintaining a smoke-free environment) is a big puzzle and all of these factors are the pieces to that puzzle,” she said.

“One of the most important elements of this approach is addressing the environment in which students make decisions about tobacco use.”

Tina Chen, a third-year psychology student who smokes, said she did not know about a policy, nor does she pay attention to signs.

“If I see a group of people smoking somewhere, I assume it’s OK to smoke there,” Chen said.

Some smokers, such as fourth-year mathematics student Gevorg Grajian, said they are unaware of the details of the smoking policy, but find the existence of such rules unfair.

“(UCLA) is putting nonsmokers’ needs over smokers’ needs,” Grajian said. “It is my free choice to smoke and I shouldn’t be cast out because of my choice.”

Carlos Rendo, a fourth-year political science student, said he is aware of the policy’s restrictions and boundaries but still does not necessarily approve.

“It’s inconvenient to have to move 20 feet away from a door, especially when I have more important things like (school) to worry about,” Rendo said.

But many students said they would move if a nonsmoker asked them to rather than start an argument, .

The public, and not the police, is the main form of policy enforcement because nonsmokers will often ask smokers to move or put out their cigarettes if they are violating the policy, McCarthy said.

“Most smokers respond appropriately as long as they are aware of the rules,” he said. “They’re law-abiding.”

He added that it falls upon non-smokers to assert their rights.

“Some may be shy and not want to confront smokers, but they need to protect their health,” he said.

Stephanie Kano, a second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student who does not smoke, said she believes the policy is reasonable and that smokers should abide by it.

“Even if it’s legal for you to be smoking, it doesn’t give you the right to be intruding on other people,” she said.

Murphy said because smoking-policy changes imply social change, the prevalence of smoking on campus is not likely to decline in a short time.

“Individuals are shaped by their environment,” Murphy said. “On a campus that condones tobacco use, students get the message that it’s OK to smoke.”

But other college campuses across the nation have made more drastic changes.

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights reported that 43 campuses have gone smoke-free.

While it is unlikely that UCLA will change its policy in the near future, the trend in college campuses becoming smoke-free is a positive one, Peck said.

“While some accommodations should be made for smokers, we don’t want to encourage and be a role model of smoking,” he added.

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