JAELYN VAN KESSEL

Smoking is an unfortunate habit that not only harms one’s self but also those around us. I feel that it is necessary that we ban smoking from the University of Saskatchewan campus.

However, banning something altogether does not necessarily work all the time. So if we can’t ban smoking altogether, we should reduce it to a certain area on campus.

The current university policy — which also applies to the use of all electronic smoking products — prohibits smoking in all university buildings, enclosed spaces, leased spaces, university owned or leased vehicles and outdoor seating areas that are part of restaurants or licensed facilities. More importantly, smoking is prohibited within a 10 meter perimeter of any university building and ventilation air intake or any other outdoor area where indicated.

Obviously, under this policy, many places on campus have already restricted smoking, so it might be harder to designate a smoking area that appeases all parties and fits within the current rules. A solution may then be to build our very own smoking lounge on campus.

A major issue which would be reduced by making a designated area for smoking on campus is secondhand smoke, which has been linked to lung cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumours, throat cancer, breast cancer and many other diseases. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 2,500,000 non-smokers have died from health problems caused by secondhand smoke since 1964.

Smoking and secondhand smoke alike can also affect your academic performance, causing hearing and vision loss and even doing damage to your brain, affecting how you perform in classes. I think I can vouch for everyone when I say we’ve all been caught inhaling someone else’s smoke on campus and a separate smoking area would help curb this problem.

Vaping — smoking through an electronic cigarette — is considered by a lot of people to be less harmful. However, while vaping isn’t as harmful as actual smoking, it’s not necessarily 100 per cent safe either. Since nicotine is still a factor, vaping can affect blood pressure and heart rate just like regular cigarettes. As such, vaping should also be restricted to a certain area on campus.

Smoking is undoubtedly habitual and in many cases it’s an addiction. Likewise, an outright ban on smoking on campus would be difficult to enforce and probably not very effective anyway, so restricting where people can and can’t smoke seems much easier.

Reducing smoking to a certain area is also a better option since it accommodates non-smokers as well as smokers. While there will still be smokers who refuse to walk all the way to a designated spot to smoke, this would still be an easier policy to enforce when compared to an all-encompassing ban.

A designated smoking location might cause some inconvenience for non-smokers who like to hang out in that particular area, but this seems to be a fair price to pay for their own health.

When it comes to ensuring the health and safety of everyone on campus, our best option is to reduce smoking by restricting it to a certain area. It benefits everyone — from those who want or need to smoke, to those who simply can’t be near it. Giving a certain amount of leeway to people who do smoke is important, but when it comes to our well-being, further limits are needed.