Outside of the Children’s Hospital at the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, there are a few concrete slabs molded together forming a decently large rectangular cubicle. When you approach this concrete edifice, the odors of nicotine and tobacco fill your nose and as you peer in you see a group of faculty, staff, students and families of patients sucking on their cigarettes, filling their lungs with carcinogens and satisfying their nicotine crave.
The OU Health Sciences Center is a relatively smoke-free campus. The only areas where smoking is allowed are in designated “smoking huts” on campus. Believe it or not, the Health Sciences Center is attempting to improve the “health” of its campus by prohibiting smoking on its campus, with the exception of inside the smoking huts.
We all know the statistics and the dangers — lung cancer, emphysema, increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Unless you have lived under a rock for the last 20 years, you know very well that smoking cigarettes will cause serious health problems in the future and contributes to bad breath and yellowing teeth in the present.
However, I’m not trying to tell the smokers of OU to quit. If you want to smoke, you have all the rights in the world to do so.
I write this article as a concerned student. I am concerned about the health of the non-smokers on our campus as they are forced to deal with the secondhand smoke of their smoking classmates, be it while walking on the South Oval, waiting for the Lloyd Noble center bus or anywhere on campus.
The Environmental Protection Agency classifies secondhand smoke as a Class A carcinogen.
In addition, a MAYO Clinic report indicates that secondhand smoke contains twice as much tar and nicotine per unit volume as does smoke inhaled from a cigarette, as well as three times the amount of cancer-causing chemical benzopyrene. Secondhand smoking has been proven to be equally if not more harmful than smoking a cigarette directly.
This year UOSA created a new health initiative — UOSA Health Advocacy. In a Sept. 7 article, “UOSA adds health advocacy programs” in The Daily, one of the stated goals of advocacy branch is to implement a smoking ban on campus.
I’m not advocating a complete ban of smoking on campus. It’s imprudent to think that a smoking ban on campus will serve its purpose. How many students who are under 21 really follow the underage drinking laws?
Instead, let’s follow HSC’s precedent, and still allow the smokers of OU to have their moments of solace to reach their nicotine high.
Bars exist so that people who enjoy a drink can have a place where they can congregate. The same principle can apply to smokers.
Let’s build some smoking huts. Low traffic locations such as areas between buildings on the South Oval, east of the Armory, or west of the Bizzell Clock Tower would be ideal.
We will never be able to eradicate smoking at OU, but at least we can attempt to curtail it.
Allow the tobacco lovers of our great campus to enjoy their habit, but let’s keep the potential harm their habit may cause away from the rest of us.
— Mubeen Shakir, University College freshman
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dargus 1 year, 7 months ago
Come on now. Secondhand smoke in a well ventilated area, for example outside, is a negligible harm. Why are so many people intent on forcing smokers to be a pariah? I don't smoke and never have, but I find draconian anti-smoking laws to be ludicrous. You aren't going to die from a small amount of secondhand smoke walking down the South Oval.
Fmsly2310 1 year, 7 months ago
I agree with the author, Mubeen Shakir. It's not just the secondhand smoke received from the South Oval. It's the fact that we can be exposed to less amounts of second hand smoke in our daily lives here on campus. It may not be a lot of smoke just to walk through the South Oval, but small amounts of anything can build up fast. Personally I don't enjoy having smoke hit my face while i'm trying to walk to class...
braceyourself 1 year, 7 months ago
I also don't like walking to class in the rain. Let's spend money on "rain tunnels."
Sticking people in a smoking hut (waste of money, when we're already looking at budget cuts and increased fees) only hurts them more by keeping the smoke in a confined space.
But hey, once we build these huts, the very same people griping about smokers will be griping about the "Smoking Hut Excellence Fee" popping up on their bursar bills.
dargus 1 year, 7 months ago
Personally, there are a lot of things I'm exposed to when I go out in public that I don't enjoy. This doesn't mean that I should have the right to prevent these things from happening. If you think tiny amounts of secondhand smoke you inhale while walking outside are hurting you, please consult your doctor to correct this mistaken opinion.
jasmin 1 year, 2 months ago
Really a educative and informative post, the post is good in all regards,I am glad to read this post.
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