I will be the first to acknowledge that walking behind someone smoking on my way to class is extremely annoying.
Moreover, when someone lights up next to me it does feel as though that person is doing something wrong, and that I have some kind of right to breathe relatively clean air without having to move.
For these reasons, I support some kind of limitations regarding smoking on campus. Certain crowded areas like Palm Walk and outside the Memorial Union probably should be smoke-free. However, there is a recent push for a full smoking ban on campus. This, I think, goes too far.
Freshman year, I lived in the Center Neighborhood dorms and just a bit outside the complex was a grassy area with tables that was a popular place to hang out and smoke at night. Any policy that prohibits people from gathering to engage in an activity they enjoy seems not merely unnecessary, but wrong.
Unlike some restrictions for the sake of protecting people from the actions of others, there are simply no good reasons for a comprehensive ban. In all but the most crowded segments of campus, it is relatively easy for courteous smokers to smoke away from others as well as for non-smokers to avoid polluting our precious lungs.
One argument for the policy might be that it improves the health of students since many would essentially be forced to quit. I would certainly like to see people make more healthy decisions but the idea of forced healthiness evokes only incredulity. Smokers obviously value smoking over their health, and it is ridiculous to make rules based on the arrogant and offensive assumption that we students have our own priorities confused.
It may seem as though a uniform ban would make enforcement easier.
However, a selective ban would reduce the total area in which enforcement is required, which should help compensate for some ambiguous cases on the borders of non-smoking areas.
Even these ambiguities could be largely avoided if non-smoking areas are chosen well and have clear boundaries. It seems if ASU has the capability for campus-wide enforcement, there would be plenty of resources with which to enforce a partial smoking ban.
One issue that does need to be addressed is the proliferation of cigarette butts all over the ground. I have no idea how or when this particularly ugly form of littering became socially acceptable but cigarettes strewn all over the ground look repulsive and cleaning them up is a huge waste of resources.
While this problem does demand some sort of action, a campus-wide cigarette ban is an extremely heavy-handed and inefficient way to deal with the problem.
Contact Noah at nnzarr@asu.edu.
