Letter to Editor by Patrick J Lonneman
Firstly, I commend the efforts to combat the vile and disgusting, though still legal, habit of using tobacco. No one should be forced to breathe cigarette smoke to learn or work on this campus. But to prohibit smoking anywhere, inside or out, goes against the higher message that this campus has sought to engender — one of welcoming people of various views, races, nationalities, sexualities, and yes, bad habits.
To not even allow smokers to smoke outside — 20 feet from any UK building entrance — sends a message of exclusivity that should not be allowed to thrive anywhere, much less on a university campus.
Are non-smokers somehow “superior” people? That’s the impression I get with this policy. Therefore, I would like to voice my disapproval and confusion at the implementation, selectivity and ultimate haughtiness of such a policy.
Furthermore, I feel it sets a precedent with far-reaching ramifications. Again, efforts to get people to quit smoking are noble. But heart disease is the No. 1 killer in this country, brought on largely by diet.
Why not attack people’s eating habits on campus? Prohibit food and drink that we know are bad for people. There can’t be that much about those slices of pepperoni pizza at Sbarro that are good for you. And what’s good about a Coke? Hypertension? Cavities?
Not only is UK allowing its students, faculty and staff to slowly kill themselves by ingesting such items on campus, but UK is actively encouraging it by letting such purveyors of obesity set up right in our midst. But no, we better attack the already put-upon minority of smokers on campus instead. It’s a misguided policy that goes against the goals of this university.
Patrick J Lonneman
graduate student, Patterson School
Let us not forget how heavily they are pushing other “nicotine products” as well.
Are you experiencing a craving? Why not pick up a pack of Nicoderm at “a deep discount at all convenience stores across campus, two pharmacies and a gift shop,” to quote Ellen Hahn!
It is important that cigarettes get regulated and approved. We have the ability to make them as safe as possible and the slow retraction by the FDA in America in regards to their un scientific and completely biased report.
There is a really simple answer to your question that, unfortunately for you, completely nullifies your argument when it comes to food on campus and your questioning of why it’s so horrible.
Money. It makes the world go round and businesses, such as a college, need it to thrive. Coke, Sbarro, Chick-Fil-A, & Subway all gave the university lots of money to be allowed to sell their products to the student population here at UK. Tobacco companies didn’t. They’re not paying UK to allow we students to ingest horrid chemicals that shorten life spans and lead to addiction, but food companies are. So really until either a) the university stops caring about money, or b) tobacco companies donate lots of money to UK, things like this will happen.
I wholeheartedly agree with the campus policy. I was a smoker for 15 years and I have been smoke free since October of 1997. Smoking affects the health of other people too, not just the smoker. Poor diet choices only affect the person making them.
I don’t see how smoking outside, away from people, harms the health of anyone but the smoker, any more than someone eating a slice of unhealthy pizza. I think smokers going outside is a decent compromise and there’s no reason to ostracize them further .
“I wholeheartedly agree with the campus policy. I was a smoker for 15 years and I have been smoke free since October of 1997. Smoking affects the health of other people too, not just the smoker. Poor diet choices only affect the person making them.”
Smokeless tobacco products like dip and snuff harm no one, but will also be banned under the planned policy.
The health effects about secondhand smoke are still debatable, but everyone seems too willing to accept the “facts” pushed forward by the anti-smoking lobby
Right on PJ.
Poor diet choices do not only affect the person making them. Poor diet choices can lead to obesity, which by itself leads to many other health problems, putting a burden on health care. Same with smoking. Both of those bad habits lead to life-long needs for health care that the rest of us have to pay for in terms of hikes in insurance prices. Prevention is the best way to keep the rest of us from having to pick up the tab.
The true costs that smokers and obese people levy on society, in the form of higher medical costs, is debatable. This article mentions some studies that have been conducted on the costs of smokers to society (or lack thereof): http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/45025207.html. And of course, non-smokers don’t pick up the tab for smokers’ higher medical costs- that’s why smokers pay higher insurance premiums. But I agree- not smoking is a good way to increase your odds of a longer, healthy life. IMO, first of all, it’s not UK’s place to tell people they can’t smoke outside, but if they feel so inclined to create a healthy environment, then they shouldn’t merely pick on smokers. Let’s address all of the issues surrounding poor health in this country, and then see how people respond to UK telling them how to behave.