Lighting up... courteously

Recently, it seems like there are more cigarette smokers on campus than there have been in past years. I guess the only reason I say that is that I’ve noticed an upswing in the number of times I have run into a cloud of cigarette smoke on the way to and from class. So there are more smokers, the old ones have picked up the rate at which they tear through packs of cigarettes, they are doing it more often in public places, or some twisted combination of all three. Either way, I wish I could go back to not noticing it again.

I’ve run into clouds of cigarette smoke on several occasions since the beginning of fall quarter and found that the most likely locations for this are outside of residence halls or academic buildings. Sometimes I even get caught walking behind someone lighting up on the way to or from class, meaning I can’t just plow through the affected area like I can with a stationary smoker; I have to travel with the cloud all the way to wherever I’m going.

I don’t have a problem with smoking or smokers - it’s your personal choice whether you do or not. I just wish all smokers would be courteous enough (I know a lot of them who already are) to realize that others haven’t made the same decision and shouldn’t be forced to accept theirs.

In some of these instances, the location is not even the smokers’ fault: there are ashtrays and cigarette disposals outside of the entrance to almost every building - meaning that if you want to go outside for a smoke break, you can easily do it less than ten feet outside the entrance.

Unfortunately, these ashtrays are meant to stop people from littering the ground with their cigarette butts before entering a building, not as an invitation for smokers to hang out there as other students have to walk through a cancer cloud on their way to class.

So smokers deserve to be able to smoke outside, yet everyone else shouldn’t have to deal with the second hand smoke. Is there any way we can live in harmony?

How about this: Smokers can walk a little bit farther away from the academic buildings (read: not in the quad) and residence halls or pick a spot that people probably aren’t going to have to walk. It’s pretty obvious where the high-traffic areas are on campus, and it’s easy to get a vague idea as to about how far cloud of cigarette smoke will spread. Take these things into account, and I think you’ll find that there are ideal places to smoke all over campus that don’t interfere with most people’s travel to and from class.

In exchange, if you decide to light up on the way to class, non-smokers can learn to deal with it if we get stuck behind you. Just don’t be surprised if you see people blasting past you on the sidewalk or strategically walking upwind of you all the time.

Smokers and non-smokers can live harmoniously if we each go a little out of our way to respect each other’s desired level of air quality. If the smokers on campus show enough courtesy to keep second-hand smoke away from passers-by, then I’m sure non-smokers will be willing to grant them a little forbearance when they inevitably run into it from time to time.