Lung and nasal infections. Chest discomfort. Coughing. Mucus. Low birth-weight babies. Cancer.
Whether you want to acknowledge the above ailments and conditions or not, secondhand smoke is hazardous and will affect your health negatively. It can be as simple as a sinus infection, or as devastating as lung cancer, but cigarette smoking is an unhealthy habit that produces a myriad of health-related issues.
Until earlier this week, I assumed everyone knew and understood this information. However, I have been proven wrong and to be honest, I am still trying to wrap my head around the arguments many are presenting in favor of smoking on campus, in the spaces we ALL share, in the air that we ALL breathe.
Before I get started I will say one thing: I am not going to discuss policy. I am not concerned about policy. People have refuted a proposed smoking ban on campus because they say the policy could never be enforced, because it’s a policy and not a law. But I am not going to talk the inability, or really, the reluctance, of policy enforcement by the “powers-that-be.” That is not the issue at hand.
The issue at hand is simple: Smoking is not something people who do not smoke should be exposed to. It not only is a health hazard, as I stated before, but it’s disgusting. I hate smelling of smoke, having it linger on my hair and clothes, because I chose to sit outside the JSAC building while eating lunch, where you know, people aren’t actually supposed to smoke because of the existing 25-foot rule. However, many smokers do not pay attention to this rule and I can’t even put into words how rude and inconsiderate that is.
According to Curtis Fease, a student here at Augusta State University, secondhand smoke does not harm people unless it is “blown directly into someone’s face.” He argued that smoking outdoors should not be an issue for nonsmokers because apparently smoke just disappears into the air, never to be seen again.
I like Fease on a personal level, but I take issue with these above statements, because for starters they are not supported by all the data on secondhand smoke that is readily available out there, and also because I don’t appreciate a smoker telling me, a nonsmoker, what I should and should not have an issue with.
Let me make this clear: If you’re a smoker, you cannot possibly understand how frustrating it is to be around your smoke. You can’t possibly get how smelly cigarette smoke is, or how bothersome it can be for someone who has chosen to live a smoke-free life. I may not always make the healthiest choices, but I have chosen to not pick up a cigarette and how is it if fair for you to insist on blowing your choice of vice my way? Smokers claim that a smoking ban on campus would hurt their “rights,” and I guess, on some level I can understand their frustration. But seriously, where are my rights? Where is my right to breathe on my college campus without having to deal with the smoking habits of others? When does your rights become so great that they outweigh others?
That is what smokers are asking us to do: Let me keep my right to smoke, no matter how negatively it affects other people. It’s this sense of entitlement that kills me. Were you born with a cigarette in your mouth? No. Smoking is a choice, not a right, in my opinion.
I personally have enjoyed the arguments from smokers about how people eat fast food such as pizza on campus, and that’s unhealthy, but hasn’t been banned. Since when did wrecking my diet with a piece of greasy food bother anyone else? Does the grease from my pizza float over to my fellow student sitting next to me and stick to his hair, clothes and skin? Obviously, the answer is no. If smoking only harmed smokers, I could not care less how many cigarettes they smoked, but that’s not the issue. Someone else brought up the argument of drinking alcohol and how drinking and driving is dangerous to others. Well, yes, that is true, but again, since when did my drinking a beer cause someone else to reek of hops? With the exclusion of me spilling my beer, my choice of beverage will not in its very nature affect you. Also, I feel like this whole argument is moot because we do not allow alcohol consumption on campus.
However, for the time being, smoking will still be unavoidable at Augusta State because Maritess Banez, the SGA President that oversaw the smoking ban resolution, has vetoed it. The pro-smokers apparently brought more than 400 signatures to the Student Activities office in favor of overturning the ban. It worked guys! I do admire your tenacity. I guess it’s good to see students getting excited and involved in something, even if it is to keep an unhealthy habit on campus that has killed countless people in the world.