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news:
Possible ban on
outdoor smoking
By Tina Dhamija
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
A push to end outdoor
cigarette smoking is underway at Cal State Long Beach. Although
indoor smoking was banned on campus in 1989, a new surge to
make CSULB 100 percent smoke-free is on the list of campus
concerns.
"We're working
to improve smoke free outdoor areas," said Natalie Whitehouse,
project coordinator of the Center of Health Care Innovation,
a tobacco control group.
Whitehouse's organization's
concern with on-campus smoking stems primarily from a cause
she called the "Tobacco Free California Campaign."
In a letter to
President Maxson's office urging an end to smoking on campus,
Whitehouse wrote, "Anyone who visits our beautiful campus
can easily be exposed to second-hand smoke. Everyday that
you see a cigarette butt on the ground is a reminder that
we are all 'paying the price.'"
Armando Contreras,
executive assistant to CSULB President Maxson, said that the
smoke-free proposal is more a question of legalities.
"Smoking is legal," he said, "so, can we legally
ban someone from smoking in an outside area?"
The 1989 ban on
indoor smoking at CSULB was extended to those outdoor areas
that are enclosed, such as in the Brotman Hall atrium. However,
it was not until now that tobacco control organizations such
as Whitehouse's group have pushed for a 100 percent smoke-free
campus.
"I'm an asthmatic
and I don't always use my inhaler a lot on campus," said
freshman marine biology major, Wade Anderson. "But sometimes
when students are smoking even 10 feet away, it makes me gag.
I think they should ban it from the hallways, but not completely."
As of now, the
main areas in consideration for the outdoor smoking ban are
those directly outside of buildings and around places of food
service, such as the walkway in front of the International
Food Court, Whitehouse said.
Pushing for a greater
level of awareness on the dangers of tobacco, Whitehouse said
her group is looking for ways to help make the campus smoke-free.
"We are asking
that cigarettes not be sold at the [campus] convenience store,"
Whitehouse said. "It just saddens me to see all these
young people harming their bodies."
Whitehouse, whose
group has been successful in banning smoking on playgrounds
and in parks, said the project to make CSULB 100 percent smoke-free
is funded by Proposition 99, the state tobacco tax initiative.
The project, she said, would not only produce a smoke-free
campus, but it would also offer tobacco awareness education
and on-campus cessation services for those students who wish
to quit smoking.
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