All right, guys, imagine this: It’s a beautiful day on campus. The sun is shining, there’s a really nice breeze, the leaves on the campus trees are turning red and yellow and orange, and it’s even Big Orange Friday. There’s a nice, crisp autumn smell in the air, too, and for once, you’re actually enjoying your walk to the other side of campus.
And then the guy in front of you pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. Now, instead of breathing in the nice fall air, you’re inhaling a smoky cancer. You try to get around the guy, but the pedestrian walkway is too crowded. So you just end up holding your breath for a while.
It’s a really disgusting situation that I’ve been in entirely too many times on campus. (You know, I don’t think cigarettes are why our mountains are called the Smoky Mountains.)
I really believe that smoking should be banned, not just restricted, on UT’s campus. All the students, faculty, and staff who have made the decision not to smoke should not have to be subjected to the dangers of second-hand smoke. It’s unhealthy, gross, and just a really annoying way to walk to class. It’s really hard for me to be near cigarette smoke, and I don’t even have asthma. I can’t imagine how much more awful secondhand smoke is for the people on campus who do have asthma or other breathing issues.
I’ve seen people address this issue a couple times before, and I want to quickly address some of the objections I’ve seen from smokers.
First, “How hard is it to just walk around us when we’re smoking?” Sometimes it’s really hard. The pedestrian gets really crowded during certain class changes, making forward pretty much the only direction a person can go. Also, it’s pretty much impossible to get away from the smoke on game day when there are 100,000 people packed like sardines walking through campus. Believe me, if it were really easy to walk around cigarette smoke every time, I wouldn’t have bothered writing this article.
Second, “What about my rights? Why should I have to get off campus just to smoke?” Well, it’s not exactly a long walk to Cumberland or to somewhere else that’s considered off campus. Additionally, did you know that one person’s rights end where another’s begin? A non-smoker’s right not to have to inhale secondhand cancer is a LOT more important than a smoker’s right to have a dangerous addiction.
The fact of the matter is that UT should NOT be facilitating people’s addictions by allowing them to get their cigarette fix on campus, and all the people who have chosen to be smoke-free should be able to breathe the cleanest air possible. UT is a dry campus. Why can’t it be a smoke-free campus, too? Really all it comes down to is this: Does UT care about our health, whether that be the health of the smokers or the health of the non-smokers?
