This school's smoke-free policies claim to be based on respect (Re: "Tobacco-Free Policies Based on Respect and a Balance of Rights", Wednesday). Our policies, however, lack much respect for reality. UBreathe Free has failed, mistaking high ideals for effective policy.
Our "smoke-free campus" policies have all of the flashiness and glamour of a Kevlar balloon, and just as much substance. There's supposedly no smoking on campus, but this has not been enforced. Instead, smokers smoke wherever they please, affecting those around them with secondhand smoke. To augment the problem, we've removed all butt stops on campus, so smokers throw their cigarette butts on the ground. We managed to get lots of signs and promotions about our smoke-free campus, all the while we've created a new littering problem. Despite our efforts, I still get a whiff of smoke every time I go into Capen.
In explaining these kinds of policies, the National Center for Tobacco Policy points out that tobacco is bad and students here seem to understand how bad it is. Unfortunately, these facts don't make all smoke-free policy automatically virtuous and good. As we've seen here at UB, there's a wide gulf between good intentions and good policy.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to let smokers smoke while keeping non-smokers' lungs clean: designated smoking areas. The university can establish a handful of these areas around campus, close enough to be convenient for smokers yet far enough away that non-smokers can avoid them. We can put butt stops in these areas, so that the people who choose to smoke can get rid of their butts properly. We'll punish smokers who don't utilize these areas, citing the reasonable alternative we've provided.
The policy I've just outlined won't make UB smoke-free, and it won't sound as exciting in newspaper write-ups. But it will accomplish our ultimate goals of greatly reducing exposure to secondhand smoke on campus. In the words of an American Cancer Society representative, "We're not saying people don't have a right to smoke; they're more than welcome to, and they can do it in a place where it's not affecting others."
-Paul Stephan
Sophomore, Environmental Design
