We here at The Kentucky Kernel believe that if you’re going to implement a campus-wide policy, you should make sure that your staff and students have the tools and motivation to stand by the policy. This is in reference to the tobacco-free policy UK staff and students are supposed to abide by. It’s no secret that the policy is openly disobeyed.

Walk anywhere on campus—outside White Hall Classroom Building, William T. Young Library or even the Medical Center–and you will see people lighting up in blatant disregard.

When UK first implemented this policy, it was an admirable attempt to curb health problems associated with tobacco. It was supposed to function based on three guidelines: tell, treat and train.

The university has had success with the treatment aspect, as a 2012 study showed that the tobacco-free policy had caused a fourfold increase in the number of people seeking treatment for tobacco addiction since it was implemented in 2009.

However, we have failed to see the success of the training guideline, which calls for cooperation between staff and student leaders to remind violators of the policy and report them if necessary.

To play devil’s advocate for a moment, we here at the Kernel understand why the policy is violated by so many.

Tobacco is an addictive substance, one to which Kentucky has a cultural dependence. Kentucky and North Carolina combined produce two-thirds of the nation’s tobacco harvest, with Kentucky farmers producing 150 million pounds of tobacco in 2012 alone.

While tobacco is good for Kentucky’s business, it has not been good for Kentucky’s health. We have the highest rate of deaths related to smoking, the highest rate of smoking among high school students and the second highest rate of adult smoking.

With all of this in mind, the Kernel would like to provide a couple of suggestions.

The first would be to do a better job enforcing the policy, which could be accomplished through a more vigorous stressing of the tobacco-free policy online report form.

This tool encourages students and staff to report violations of the policy around campus and asks the reporter to provide their contact information, the specific location of the violation, physical description of the smoker and whether or not they informed the smoker of the ban on campus.

Violators of the tobacco-free policy are reported to the Dean of Students and can face fines or disciplinary action.

UK employees must also obey the policy, and are reported to and disciplined by the Human Resources office upon any violations.

The second suggestion is to better advertise the resources that staff and students have at their disposal in ending their tobacco addiction.

The UK Counseling Center offers free tobacco cessation counseling and nicotine replacement therapy, which recent studies have shown are two of the most effective tools at curbing tobacco addiction.

Another possible route, albeit a risky one, would be to allow the use of electronic cigarettes.

The Food and Drug Administration classifies electronic cigarettes as tobacco products, therefore they fall under the tobacco ban on campus.

The university has vehemently affirmed that they would never encourage the use of “e-cigs” on campus, because students would be substituting one unhealthy habit for another.

Despite the fact that studies on “e-cigs” are slim and that there are health risks associated with “e-cigs,” traditional cigarettes lead to nearly 500,000 deaths per year in America alone.

So defaulting to the use of “e-cigs” could at least be kept as a last resort.

Regardless of what decision the university chooses to make, there is a clear issue with this policy and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible to ensure the health and safety of our staff and students.

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