IUPUI and IU-East to go smoke-free

This summer, students, faculty and staff at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis and IU-East will no longer be able to smoke on campus as they will soon see their respective schools become tobacco and smoke free. \nBoth universities are implementing new policies that will work to further prevent smoking in and around campus. The policies will become active in August. \nIUPUI's policy bans the use or sale of any tobacco product -- including cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff and cigars -- on any IUPUI owned, operated or leased property or vehicle. Likewise, at IU-East smoking will be prohibited everywhere on campus, including University vehicles and privately owned vehicles on campus. \n"Just like IU-Bloomington, we enacted a policy a few years ago that prohibited smoking within 30 feet of all campus buildings," said Karen Whitney, vice chancellor for student life and diversity at IUPUI. "This went so successfully and because IUPUI is the state's leading health and life science campus, it made sense for us to be a leader in the state and go to the next level with this policy." \nOne thing that prompted IUPUI to go smoke-free was the research done by Stephen Jay of the IU School of Medicine, who is a leading researcher on the effects of smoking. Jay's research shows that second hand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. It approximated that up to 1,600 non-smoking Hoosiers die annually from exposure to second hand smoke. \n"Second hand smoke is a known major risk factor to human health in our society," Jay said. "It is a potent agent in precipitating diseases like asthma, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. It seems compelling that we show the hazards of second hand smoke in prudent campus polices to protect students and the environment." \nHe added studies have shown that exposure to second hand smoke is cumulative is known to trigger biochemical events that can eventually lead to cancer. \nBefore making the decision to go tobacco free, IUPUI compiled years of surveys conducted on thousands of students, faculty and staff via the internet and phone calls to try to ascertain the general disposition regarding the policy. An overwhelming majority of people favored the ban.\n"There isn't a big smoking problem at IUPUI, but there are a lot of people bothered by it," said IUPUI student Matt Barker. "I guess the majority of people are pushing for the right to breath fresh air." \nIU-East in Richmond is undertaking its no-smoking policy in team with both Ivy Tech and the new Reed Hospital facility, which are both located close to IU East's campus. All three institutions have decided to make the 300 acres of property they own entirely smoke-free to promote a community wide "end to smoking" campaign. \n"A long time ago we declared our buildings smoke-free and allowed smoking outside the building," said IU-East Chancellor David Fulton. "But that didn't prove to be very satisfactory because people would cluster by the outside of the buildings to smoke and people would have to walk through a cloud of smoke when they were coming and going."\nFulton said he has heard no complaints from anyone about the ban and, in fact, there was a rousing cheer when he announced the policy to the public. \n"I have regularly scheduled chats with students to discuss various issues," Fulton said. "We brought up making the campus smoke-free, and while students thought it was inconvenient they expected it to happen in the future and figured that's what was going to happen." \nIn addition to the no-smoking policy, the IU-East Center for Health Promotion will be offering a program called "Kick your Butts" to students and staff who want to quit smoking and adapt to the new policy. The 16-week support program costs $50 and includes weekly educational sessions that tackle a variety of issues that smokers might be concerned with, such as how to avoid gaining weight and exercises that will help increase lung capacity. Participants of the program will also have a weekly pulmonary function test to measure the health of their lungs. \nAs IU's regional campuses institute their new no-smoking policies, many may wonder if the Bloomington campus will join IUPUI and IU-East and go smoke-free. \nThe current smoking policy at IU-Bloomington dictates that smoking is prohibited within 30 feet of campus buildings. Vehicles owned or leased by the University are also smoke-free. This policy has been in place since 2003. The city of Bloomington also enacted a tough smoke ban throughout the city in 2003. Despite both of these policies being in place, having a smoke-free IU campus is something that most likely won't be occurring soon. \n"To my knowledge no one has discussed (a smoking ban) as a serious proposal; the issue has not been dealt with," said Larry MacIntyre, director of IU media relations. "We are aware of what other campuses are doing but this campus is different because we have many public streets and thoroughfares running through campus. The board of trustees at IU doesn't have legal authority to make smoking laws on these streets. That is the domain of the city of Bloomington."\nEven though Bloomington has taken a strong stand on maintaining a mostly smoke-free town, one area that the 2003 smoke ban did not cover were people driving in their cars on city streets or those walking on city sidewalks. Theoretically as seen on IU-East and IUPUI's new rules, these are areas that would be off limits to smokers under a campus-wide ban, which is why the policy would be harder to enforce at IU. \n"A ban on certain Bloomington city streets most likely won't happen because when the initial vote was taken in 2003 to enact the smoke-free-Bloomington policy, a few members of the board felt very strongly that it was too much force coming from the government on the people's free will to prohibit smoking in their cars and on sidewalks," said Emerson LaJoie, assistant city clerk for the city of Bloomington. \nBecause the board of trustees is not even considering the issue, MacIntyre said IU students who want to see the campus follow the lead of IUPUI and IU-East and become smoke-free should work through their student government representatives. \n"If students want this (policy) they should first discuss it at the student government level," MacIntyre said. "The student government could bring attention by bringing it to the board of trustees. We listen to our students"