Give non-smokers a smoke-free environment
COMMENTARY
Melissa Christensen

I need a breath of fresh air. I just wish I didn’t have to wade through hovering clouds of cigarette smoke to get it.

This fall Indiana University students received a reprieve from secondhand smoke when officials banned smoking within 30 feet of building entryways. TCU officials need to consider a similar policy.

As a matter of public safety, smoking has been both voluntarily and legally banned in most indoor venues, with the exception of many restaurants and bars, for well over a decade. The only restriction on smoking at TCU, according to the student handbook published online, prohibits smoking inside buildings. This restriction has pushed smokers outdoors — but barely.

Smokers who light up right outside of doorways still impose their offensive habit upon non-smokers. Grabbing that last quick fix right outside the door before heading into class force non-smokers to walk through a harmful haze of secondhand smoke.

Granted the exposure near the door isn’t prolonged, but non-smokers deserve every opportunity to avoid being exposed to any amount of smoke. After all, non-smokers have already made a conscious decision to preserve their health and to not reek of a noxious substance.

Several cities in California have passed or are in the process of enacting legislation limiting outdoor smoking. These cities are following a consensus of environmentalists at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco that calls for a smoke-free area 20 to 50 feet from building entrances.

But TCU smokers have claimed more than just doorways. Common areas like the Moudy atrium and the area between Sadler Hall and Reed Hall are a puffer’s paradise. Non-smokers either have to choke it up or find elsewhere to sit and enjoy a sunny day between classes. Even if smokers aren’t present, the lingering foul odor and discarded butts are enough to ruin any amount of serenity intended by a common outdoor area.

One person’s choice to smoke will never outweigh another person’s right to good health. A smoker’s choice should not be allowed to infringe on a non-smoker’s choice to sit undisturbed in an outdoor common area.

The dangers of secondhand smoke are undeniable facts. The annoyances of secondhand smoke are obvious to any non-smoker. Since it’s impossible for non-smokers to healthfully co-exist with smokers in a smoking environment, the burden of amiable co-existence falls to smokers.

Limited smoking areas need to be established away from doorways and common areas. The ashtrays that dot campus should be placed a reasonable distance from doorways so that they can be avoided easily by non-smokers.

Non-smokers will only be safe if enforcement of the smoking restriction is firm. A violation should be punished with fines more harrowing than a denied craving.

Only after such a policy is implemented can campus non-smokers breathe a sigh of relief.

Melissa Christensen is a junior news-editorial major from Grand Island, Neb.