Smoking regulations need to be further enforced at MSU

Man, you probably breathe more carcinogens just walking along the sidewalk from cars as you do briefly walking by some smokers outside your dorm. I know it is a policy to be 25 feet away, but it really isn’t worth the time for the police to write a ticket for someone. Just chiiiiiilll.

On a side note, banning smoking across campus is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

I don’t smoke but I don’t agree with banning smoking on campus. Even though this is a somewhat serious health issue for the overall community, I do believe that smokers have a right to do their thing. Also, if you take a look, smokers at MSU go in groups and are not dispersed. So, its like they are all in one place.

Banning on campus smoking is just a PR move that will otherwise benefit the Medical School in other institutions by getting more donations and grants.

So, as dangerous as smoking is lets keep MSU’s current policy and let the people that want to smoke, well, smoke.

Thank God that butterpile will be at the back of the line for an organ transplant (if he/she should ever need one) due to lifestyle choices.

And banning smoking across campus is the best thing that ever happened.

Since smokers don’t care about their bodies they are not going to care about anyone else’s and abide by the 25 foot rule.

Smoking, which Mr. Obama claims to have just quit, just shows how STUPID Michigan and DEMOC-RATS are.

Smoking brings early DEATH. It accounts for as much as 15% of U.S. health care costs — $200,000,000,000.00.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10298&ttype=2

Yet — Mr. ex-smoker President wants to RAISE THE TAX BURDEN to pay for “universal health care.”

HOW DUMB! TO PAY FOR SMOKING’S DAMAGE — EVEN IF YOU DO NOT SMOKE?

DUMB, DUMB, DUMB! DEMOC-RATS!!

Cancer Boy-
Who do you think pays for smokers health care now? We either pay for it with Medicare taxes or we pay for it in higher health care cost and premiums. When people talk about Obama raising taxes on business, they said those taxes are passed down to us the same is true of those who smoke. The book you linked to said as much.
That’s why I get annoyed with people who say smokers have a right to smoke. Well, that “right” results in my insurance costing more, spreads cancer to non-smokers and makes insurance unaffordable for others. So let’s balance your right with my right not to have to pay for your stupidity.

They Don’t Care-

Obviously, that is the point. But it shouldn’t matter whether smokers don’t care about the law. It is the law. This article suggests ways that we can help enforce it and we should enforce it because I don’t care if smokers think they have a “right” to smoke. I actually do have a right not to smoke with them.

I have to believe that BUTTERPILE IS CANCER BOY is some kind of bizarre performance piece.

I agree that the smoking is a problem. I spend a lot of time working in Fee Hall, and there is one door right outside a stairwell that people are always sitting next to and smoking. That stairwell always reeks of smoke when they are there. I often have to walk around the building to avoid that door. The smoke is so bad there that I have to hold my breath. Sadly, my service dog can’t hold his, and he coughs when we walk through such an area.

Another bad area on campus is the library entrance.

I have been taking classes at LCC for the past year (can’t afford MSU’s tuition, but that’s another story). It is absolutely wonderful to walk around the campus and not be assaulted by cigarette smoke. If you want to smoke there, you’ve got to walk to the edge of campus. The police do patrol the campus and discuss the rules with anybody caught smoking (don’t know if they actually write citations).

Given the large size of MSU’s campus, it may be more practical to establish designated smoking areas in out-of-the-way places around the center of campus.

Secondhand smoke isn’t just about carcinogens. It’s also about people with asthma who get triggered into an asthma attack by the smoke.

the police have a duty to enforce laws, but they are too busy sitting on shaw trying to catch an undergrad going 5 over to give them a ticket.

also, im in favor of banning smoking in all bars and restaurants. ive moved to a state that doesn’t allow smoking, and all the bars are still busy. when you go home you dont smell like smoke at all, and you dont feel like you’ve spent the last couple of hours in a gas cloud. its weird coming home now and walking into a bar because you can tell theres a big difference right away

I can’t believe people even still smoke, but that’s another issue. I believe people have the right to slowly poison themselves to death if they want to, just do it away from sane people. Why do smokers have the right to create a gauntlet of second hand smoke right outside of buildings that everyone has to walk in and out of? You have your right to smoke, I should have the right not to breath that garbage in.

Not to mention all the cigarrette butts that get tossed on the ground.

Ban smoking on MSU’s campus. I’ll get in my car and drive off campus to smoke between classes. The greenhouse gases and NOX and every other chemical coming out of my tailpipe will be waaayyy better for you and the Earth than my cigarette smoke…

I agree with Dave. It makes me angry to have to walk through that crap, and then stink like a smoker for the rest of the day. Smokers are so inconsiderate it’s astounding. Not to mention the way they litter all over with their rancid cigarette butts. Disgusting.

Matt-

Why don’t you stop being a complete idiot and just quit smoking? Why should the 80% of us who don’t smoke have to smell the bad habit of the 20% who do smoke? And even worse than the smell is the increase risk of cancer for the nonsmokers. You have no conscience.

I don’t understand why smokers even want to defend their case when they know that what they are doing is harming themselves and the people around them. It seems like a big joke.

There should definitely be a smoking ban imposed on campus. I don’t care if you have to drive onto Grand River to smoke because this is a democracy and the majority’s decision should be upheld. I don’t want to have to open the doors at Wells Hall (or any other building for that matter) and go through that crowd of smokers who are coincidentally the inconsiderate people who block the doors from being opened, especially when it is raining. If you are going to be inconsiderate and selfish in the way you conduct your life, you should not expect people to respect your right to certain items.

And Matt, let me remind you that when you do drive, you are not just harming us, you are harming yourself, since you will be around to witness the effect of the pollution and global warming (or maybe not, since you choose to torture your body by smoking)

In many states in the U.S. we legally require people to wear motorcycle helmets when riding. In one of the deciding cases that determined this law it was cited that people do not have the right or freedom to refuse to wear a helmet because most American citizens are such that we are unlikely to leave someone lying bleeding on the side of the highway. It was mentioned in this case that it is an inconvenience to others and is an expense to all because some citizens decide to be irresponsible. If we recognize the ethics of restricting rights in this way, it is ridiculous to think that we would not do so in regards to the “rights” of smokers. Especially since in the case of smoking, the smoker is DIRECTLY negatively affecting the health of another. An inconvenience and expense are even the two lesser arguments against smoking but – as just demonstrated – have still been found to be sufficient in other considerations.

More important to the present argument are the deleterious effects of second hand smoke. As a country, we often stipulate a negative effect on someone’s health as a legitimate reason to restrict the rights of others. This is why companies and industries cannot simply emit whatever noxious chemicals they want into the air. I would also argue smoking in public places is comparable to drunk driving; putting another at risk because you believe you have the right to do what you want (albeit the cause of death is immediate). Some of these comments have remarked that students and others should just avoid the group of people and cloud of smoke (Where is your literature on second hand smoke that specifies you can walk out of the way a little and not be effected?). I would like to see someone try to argue that people should just avoid drunk drivers on the road, or live farther away from factories. It wouldn’t fly, because people have the right to be healthy. Read something on public health law and ethics and try to come up with a legitimate argument for the right to smoke in public places. You can be as pissy, rude and selfish as you want, but it is only a matter of time…

Additionally, I have to wonder – why do smokers as a group seem to want to seem so inconsiderate? Why Matt does it seem appropriate to you to show that no matter what you can find a way to make the world a worse place for all? Why do you want to be that person? Some people spend every day of their lives trying to make the world a better place. You don’t deserve to live in their world and they don’t deserve to be negatively affected by your actions. I clearly don’t know everything about you from that one post – but that is how you presented yourself. I do not think smokers are bad people; you smoke – we all do some things that are not good for us. But don’t think it is ok to negatively affect the health of others; It’s not.

Carly- I love you. I want to make babies with you.

I honestly don’t think a few smokers smoking in the stairs really affect people that much. I mean smoke can be nasty but I have the feeling that the people behind this whining do it more out of moral righteousness. Honestly, you receive more carcinogens, as someone said, from cars driving past the sidewalks than a few dudes killing themselves outside your building. Geez people. What next, are you gonna ban people from using cars?

Amir-

You are wrong. I admit that I whine about cigarette smoke. But it’s not out of concern for the environment. And it’s not out of concern over exposure to carcinogens (I just don’t spend that much time in places that allow smoking). I dislike encountering cigarette smoke because it’s disgusting. It stinks! Plus, I never know when exposure to cigarette smoke will trigger an asthma attack that will inconvenience me (at the least!).

It’s like driving by a dead skunk in the road. It’s not really hurting most people, but they still don’t like it. It violates the senses, and most people wish that it wasn’t there.

thats such a dumb reason. most people in saudi arabia probably dont like women to show skin. what if most people (unfortunately i am the minority) think that fake tanned women look like carrotcakes- should there carrotcake faces be banned from the public?

Matt, if smoking were banned on campus you would really get in your car and drive off campus to smoke a cigarette? Exactly what is your IQ?

You people have to be some of the biggest babies that have ever graced the comments pages. I don’t smoke, but I realize that walking by smoke for 1.5 seconds doesn’t make you smell all day, won’t affect your health, definitely isn’t going to give you cancer, and won’t trigger an asthma attack. People like you are the reason this country is becoming such a sissified nation of litigious, selfish, weak morons. Grow up.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand_smoke/index.htm

For those who think “only a little won’t hurt”, here’s the CDC’s website on “There is No Risk-Free Level of Exposure to Secondhand Smoke”:
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet7.html

Read. Think. Then post.

Hey Dave,
Read. Thought. Post – Nowhere does it say walking by secondhand smoke for a couple of seconds will cause any harm. It says “brief”. “Brief” isn’t very scientific, so until you provide me with an duration of exposure and a frequency of exposure, your argument is invalid.