More Effort Needed to

Curtail Student Tobacco Use

Dear Editor:

As reported recently by the Tobacco Free Communities Coalition in its grading of local colleges and universities, UCSD received a dismal rating — a “D” grade for its efforts and policies regarding tobacco regulation. Of the list of six San Diego-area four-year universities’ tobacco policies and practices, UCSD ranked at the very bottom, receiving the only “D.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 40,000 nonsmoking Americans die yearly due to exposure to secondhand smoke. For a reference point, about 18,000 Americans die of AIDS and 17,000 die of homicide annually. It is completely unacceptable that such a large number of people who aren’t even smokers die from exposure (through secondhand smoke) to tobacco, which is entirely preventable. While the case of those who eventually die as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke is somewhat extreme, it has been proven that any exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful. Smoking is not an issue that involves just the smoking individual, since it inherently forces others to chemically participate in what is a harmful activity. Because it is a public health issue, where smoking may and may not occur must be strictly regulated. Many UCSD students can personally attest to times when they’ve been forced to breathe others’ secondhand smoke as they’ve walked to or from class, eaten or hung out with friends in common areas like Price Center, or as they’ve participated in other activities on campus. UCSD does have the 20-foot law (the state-required bare minimum), but even when this rule is being observed (which is certainly not all the time), tobacco smoke can still be prevalent in far too many places on campus.

Some other public colleges and universities in California such as San Francisco State, Fresno State and, locally, Miramar College, have instituted campuswide smoking bans with the allowance of a handful of outdoor areas designated as zones where people may smoke. UCSD would do well to implement such a policy, as it would leave little ambiguity concerning where smoking may occur and would reduce the prevalence of harmful secondhand smoke present throughout the campus. It is ironic that on an academic level UCSD has consistently produced excellent research on the harmful nature and effects of tobacco smoke yet as a campus it has done a notably poor job in protecting people from it.

Any university that is truly serious about the health of its students, faculty, workers and guests should be doing the absolute best it can in forming its policies and practices on tobacco. A “D” grade shows that UCSD is currently nowhere near that goal.

— Kirk Boydston

Eleanor Roosevelt College Senior