TobaccoReviews

Tobacco Free UNLV has been pushing hard for a campus-wide ban on smoking discount Virginia cigarettes. As the benefits of grant money given to UNLV in pursuit of such a goal come to light, one may question why anyone would be opposed to something that simultaneously improves health and makes money.

The simple response is that no one should be forced into making healthier choices, and that’s exactly what such a ban aims to do. It’s an attempt to inconvenience smokers to the point where they are forced to quit.

That’s not what proponents claim, of course. They say they’re looking out for the common good, protecting the health of those who don’t use cigarettes or cigars and are at risk of contracting health issues from secondhand smoke. They cite studies showing that, even outdoors, secondhand smoke poses a health risk and sometimes it’s as bad as it is indoors. There are many such studies, all backing up this claim, but they all come with a single caveat that is rarely mentioned or quickly glossed over.

A person must be near the smokers for secondhand smoke to pose a threat outside. All the studies include this as part of their report. In a fairly open area, within about two feet of a smoker, you’re inhaling just as much particulate matter as you would if you were locked inside a classroom with someone puffing away. At around seven feet, secondhand smoke becomes a background pollutant, no worse than what you inhale every day when you walk down the street.

The reason the studies all conclude that outdoor secondhand smoke can be as bad as indoor, is because they are focused on crowded areas; places like outdoor pubs, cafes and park benches in heavily trafficked areas.

No one bothers to study the effects of secondhand smoke in wide-open areas where the smokers are removed from the general populace by a dozen yards. This is because all of the other studies point to the fact that such people are a danger to no one other than themselves.

This is an important distinction in determining the agenda of an agency like Tobacco Free UNLV, because the organization seems like it doesn’t want to compromise: It wants a full-out ban on smoking. They’ll settle for small steps if that’s what it takes, but they will push until that final goal is realized.

If it were just the dangers of secondhand smoke they were worried about, they would be happy with UNLV putting up designated smoking areas around campus, away from heavy traffic areas. Such a policy would both prevent exposure to secondhand smoke and clear up many of the issues people have with a full ban.

Students who live on campus would not have to cross the street and brave a dangerous area of town at night to get a fix, and the transient population would not have to schedule their classes around the idea of leaving school grounds to take a smoke break.

There are already rules prohibiting smoking in front of campus buildings, and those are now being enforced where previously they were mostly ignored. That’s a good thing. No one wants to come out of their class and walk into a cloud of nasty tobacco smoke. Prohibiting smoking on the well-traveled pathways throughout the university would be a good move, as well. An outright ban goes too far and feels too much like enforced healthiness.

We already spend billions of dollars a year forcing people to not take drugs. Everyone knows they can be dangerous, but some people make a conscious, informed decision to use them anyway. I see no problem with that and believe anti-drug polices are a huge waste of government funds.

However, I suspect the anti-smoking lobby would love to see tobacco added to the list of illegal substances, thus raising the amount of work and money that goes into policing people’s bad habits. Everyone knows smoking is unhealthy. Some choose to do it anyway. That should be perfectly acceptable.

Some people in our society seem bent on forcing everyone to conform to certain lifestyles that they deem appropriate. Pushes like this one, designed to regulate behavior, need to stop. If what someone does harms another, unwilling person, put an end to it. Otherwise, learn to leave well enough alone.