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FIU’s Tobacco-free Campus Steering Committee will host an educational session Tuesday, May 25, to gain support and address concerns about implementing the tobacco-free and smoke-free policy for a proposed date of Jan. 1, 2011. The meeting will be from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Graham Center, Room 243, at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.
According to Rick Botelho, M.D., chair of the steering committee and assistant dean of Faculty and Student Development in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, the university needs the support of both tobacco users and non-tobacco users to launch an educational and social engagement campaign over the next six months.
“We will use this session to gather ideas about creating positive social influence and supports that will help to implement this policy and better still, reduce the rates of tobacco use within our community,” said Botelho. “We will also provide an update on this policy and the resources about tobacco cessation services.”
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Support? Why should students support a policy that prohibits freedom? Tobacco is a legal product, no less legal than alcohol, if not more so! One must be 18 to buy tobacco and die for our country yet 21 to buy and consume alcohol. Both alcohol and tobacco kill. Tobacco kills those who chose to use it while alcohol kills both those who chose to use it and those who don't. Second hand smoke kills as well, yet its effects further than 25 feet are questionable if not impossible to implicate. If the major complaint of non-smokers are the potentially smoke filled halls outside the library then why doesn't FIU place ash trays further than 25 feet from doors? There are numerous doorways throughout the university where ashtrays are less than 5 feet from a door! Maybe FIU placed ashtrays so close to doors because FIU planned to ban such legal behavior? If FIU is so concerned with public health then why did it place a Chilis Too on campus which will contribute toward alcoholism and obesity? If there were an issue on campus one should attack it should be alcoholism, yet I'd argue against it since I believe every individual has the opportunity to pursue freedom, whether self destructive or constructive. On the same note, is not the greatest killer on campus obesity? It is being argued that obesity has replaced tobacco as the number one killer of Americans, yet FIU adds a Chillis Too and encourages gluttony with all you can eat buffets! What is most interesting is that no one has brought up the fact that there is no way FIU can ban smoking! If FIU were to read state law it would learn that no entity, county, or municipality can supersede the state tobacco ban. What does this mean? FIU CAN NOT BAN SMOKING! It is not illegal to smoke within the state of Florida as outlined by the Florida Clean Clean Indoor Act and section 386.209 reserves the right to implement stricter bans to the state. Section 386.209 means that it is impossible for anyone whether it be an FIU employee, FIU police officer, Miami-Dade police officer, or any random student, to issue a citation or any other form of disciplinary action toward a student using tobacco. Using tobacco brings me to my last and final point. Why is FIU banning tobacco only, if it is concerned about students' health, yet allows alcohol and horrific processed foods? FIU claims tobacco effects others through second hand smoke, yet it is banning all tobacco. How does smokeless tobacco effect anyone else except the individual using it? FIU is on a mission to play god and participate in a big brother state to inhibit freedom upon its students. If it is not illegal FIU should not be in the business of banning anything. The great thing is that every student who wishes to do so should dip or light up and there is nothing FIU can legally do to stop you, so enjoy that nicotine even if it might kill you much like alcohol or fatty foods!
I wrote this poem in my CRW3311, Summer A 2010 class and it has to do with precisely this, figured I would share it:
FIU Is Not an Ashtray!
No! FIU is not your ashtray.
For you to pollute and puff away on every class, lab, study or research day,
for your cigarette butts to be tossed away.
I stroll MMC campus in disappointment and dismay,
at lush green grounds sparsely decorated in butt confetti decay.
No! FIU is not your ashtray.
I walk thru glass sliding doors, past your rancid exhaled fog bouquet,
you stand with your Starbucks in hand; this is the GL breezeway, not a sidewalk cafe,
for your cigarette butts to be tossed away.
Your jaundiced teeth, butt breath and capillary eyes, are anything but caché!
You trash our walkways with filtered incense infused with the scent of dead prey.
No! FIU is not your ashtray.
Tell me, does the front of your home display littered cigarette disarray?
I bet you also flick butts out car windows, in public spaces and over fences anyway,
for your cigarette butts to be tossed away.
Each day I see slovenly students and staff who depict personas that do not portray
FIU's image, our community-focus and Panther Pride are the last thing they display.
No! FIU is not your ashtray,
for your cigarette butts to be tossed away.
By
Federico R Lastra
Tutor
The Center for Academic Success
What is this Tobacco Free initiative anyway for our campus? Was this student approved? I don't support more any health education on this matter.
To preface my views….let me tell you that I don't smoke. And, I really don't like people around me smoking. It bothers my lungs and my sinuses, and even elevates my heart rate for 3 days (yea, I've read the research on chance of heart attack within 3 days of exposure). Smoking is bad. I'd support any created zones for them to get segregated into if they want to lounge and smoke and not have it waft into others who might inhale it and don't want it. But, the Florida law doesn't prohibit it. In fact, it doesn't prohibit them to smoke outdoors unless it's covered over (ie smoke could bother someone.) It's their right to smoke if they choose to pick it up the first time and got addicted and haven't quit yet. I don't support overtaxation of their cigarettes to strongarm them to cessation based on finances. I think that punishes the poor and the fixed income populace. Did cost ever deter anyone from bad habits? No. And, I certainly don't support any university sponsorship of any program that limits their freedom or anyone's freedoms to move off campus, at a walking distance of miles in this heat, in this climate, in order to practice their rights.. This is just in bad taste for university involvement. This isn't creation of positive change unless the university only limits it's control over them into their ideals through health awareness, health education and volunteer or proactive group cessation programs. And, nothing more. Smoking is bad. Yes. Eating can be bad too. Eating more than you burn is common sense. Eating trans fats, nitrites and processed foods…any alcohol, any alcohol that isn't moderate..you get the point. The information is constantly evolving. The list goes on and on and are serious problems plaguing our nation. The answer is education. Does our new medical school ignore all the research that doesn't fit a cool-sounding-agenda on addiction and the intricacies of mental addiction to instead participate in politically hot ideas on the level with green terrorism? Does the university decline money from Pepsi, Coke, french fry sales and other "bad" food police style vendors? Do we push student into diet concerns for health? o we control the access and freedom to purchase and consume those things as well? Last time I checked, there was a fryer in the cafeteria, and ice cream, and desserts, despite the healthy choices also offered as well (keep the good choices there). A university is simply not to the place to push your agenda on limiting freedom. It's for education and discussion from all the sides, with choice foremost, not lack of choice.
To Federico re: your poem. I enjoyed your work. That was cute and you put some effort into it, but what about some effort to create change from those that manage the university, not just berating those with poor etiquette and ignorance. Do you honk your horn at passing drivers to implement change, or do you find it a fruitless endeavor to change random strangers?
It's currently specified in the Florida Indoor Clean Air Act not to be able to smoke when it's covered or bounded by any walls as it's technically part of what is considered indoors, which does describe the breezeways of the library and Graham Center. Blame FIU for not providing a smoking area around there that is clearly marked that people would migrate to versus breaking the law. Blame them for possibly not providing enough canisters where there is an obvious location for avoiding butts on the ground, or not cleaning up butts from flowerbeds rapidly (think grafitti), thus encouraging more, and/or not posting appropriate legal signage (of course with enforcement and warnings from campus police). Do the police not only expect people to know the laws or do they operate checkpoints to enforce DUI and seat belt laws in addition to the laws themselves. It's realistic to think both approaches are realistic for change.
When you exit a restroom, do you use a paper towel to also, hygenically not recontaminate your hands, when open the door and expect management to have the foresight to have a receptacle within distance of the door handle? Yes. That's good management to predict realistic human behavior. This has become more commonplace over the years, but it wasn't always there. Change.
Not everyone is blameless in their ignorance of the law, when they break it, but it doesn't mean that etiquette among smokers is entirely to blame when a University is managed from above. Think solutions that fit reality.