Senate
presented with butts to prove point
By
Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
Have
you ever noticed cigarette butts littering
the ground all around campus? Despite the
adverse health effects of smoking, numerous
Cal State Long Beach students still feel
the need to get their nicotine intake, and
when they are finished smoking that cigarette,
more often than not the cigarette butt goes
right on the ground. Campuses Organized
& United for Good Health, or COUGH,
is trying to make a difference in not only
improving this phenomenon but also campus
health overall.
COUGH,
in its presentation to the A.S. Senate Wednesday,
brought five empty water bottles filled
with cigarette butts, butts that they picked
up in a one-hour span last month on campus.
The bottles contained an approximate 5,200
cigarette butts in all.
According
to COUGH, "As of January 1, 2004, all
campuses must comply with AB 846,"
a bill that requires posted signs marking
20-foot no-smoking zones, "at an entrance,
exit or window of a public building owned
by the state, county or city." While
the group has "no intention of alienating
smokers," it still seeks to increase
awareness of the policy among smokers and
hope that the signs will reduce the affects
of secondhand smoke on non-smokers.
Navneet
Jammu, a graduate student from Health and
Human Services and member of COUGH, added
that cigarette butts take "up to 25
years to decompose," and release chemicals
from filters into the soil and waterways.
Donna Sze, Manohar Sukumar and Claire Garrido-Ortega,
all from COUGH, said they plan on distributing
letters petitioning the campus to comply
with the law "and make environment
conducive to health and academics."
Over time, COUGH will seek to make California
colleges "100 percent smoke-free."
In
other news, Pamela Ashe, Counseling and
Psychological Services staff psychologist,
and Brett Robertson, program coordinator
for the Safe Zone program, presented the
Senate with their plan for establishing
a "university-wide network of easily
visible allies who can provide support,
information and assistance to lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender students at CSULB."
Faculty and campus officials who complete
training for the Safe Zone will receive
a sticker that they can place on their door,
letting students know that they are supportive
and knowledgeable about LGBT issues.
"In
about four years," Ashe said, "you
will probably see decals all over the campus
[and all teachers] will have gone through
the training."
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