Transcription: Classroom smoke irritating
By Susan Elaine Clark
Warning: this classroom may be hazardous to your health.
There is little doubt that cigarette smoking is hazardous to smokers’ health. That famous little warning from the Surgeon General reminds every person who plunks down forty cents at the cigarette counter that he’s buying something that most likely will injure his body.
But whether the cigarette smoke lingering in the air after a deep exhale injures the non-smoker sitting next to the smoker has not been so easy to prove. Reports released within the last month indicate that such smoke does harm the non-smoker almost as much as it harms the smoker.
This seems to indicate that non-smokers who sit for even a minimal 45 minutes in a classroom where several people are smoking are in a good position to suffer all the things many heavy smokers suffer: an increased likelihood of cancer, bronchial irritation, a dependence on nicotine, a greater susceptibility to infections and a general felling of ill health - not to mention plain discomfort.
Persons who are allergic to cigarette smoke are in an even worse position. They often experience a runny nose, watery eyes, headaches and difficulty in breathing.
The I.U. Board of Trustees’ ban on cigarette smoking in classrooms has been poorly enforced and is, in fact, not enforceable except by professors who don’t smoke in class. A large number of faculty and staff do smoke in the classroom, however, and are hardly: in positions to insist their student not smoke.
Non-smokers have a right to breathe air free of cigarette smoke. And smokers have a right to fill their lungs with all the tar and nicotine they want. Therein lies the problem.
The best solution is one that would be fair ‘ to both kinds of people. All smoking, therefore, should be banned in classes 45 minutes or less in length. Classes and seminars lasting longer than 45 minutes should break for five, minutes per each additional half hour while those who want to smoke can leave the room to do so.
Non-smokers may feel a smoke break infringes on their educational time, and smokers may resent having to leave the room before they light up.
But most lengthy classes could use a short break. And the resulting clear air in the classroom could do everyone good.
