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Smokers should be respectful
University Chronicle
EDITORIAL BOARD
The issue: Winter has set in at SCSU, and smokers linger around building entrances, blocking the way for others.
What we think: Smokers should be considerate of others’ needs to get into buildings — smoke free.
The snowfall last week brought the familiar scene of winter in Minnesota: heavy ski jackets, mittens, snow scrapers and smokers outside of Stewart Hall.
The issue of smokers outside all buildings seems to resurface each winter when smokers congregate just outside the door. They stand and smoke, perhaps trying to stay warm from the escaping heat, perhaps trying to warm each other with collective body heat.
Nonetheless, these smokers hinder the ability of others (smokers and nonsmokers alike) to enter the building.
They block the doorways. They create a maze in and out of buildings. They endanger the health of everyone around them.
Everyone has heard the facts about secondhand smoke, but a little refresher course won’t hurt anyone.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Web site, secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers.
The mixture contains more than 4,000 substances. Secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in nonsmokers and causes about 3,000 lung cancer deaths to nonsmokers each year.
Besides the fact that secondhand smoke can be deadly, it can also increase a person’s chances of catching a cold, bronchitis or any of the other respiratory infections that are so prominent this time of year.
In addition, some buildings, such as the Miller Learning Resources Center, have strong ventilation systems that suck cigarette smoke in and redistribute it through the air inside the building, via air ducts.
Smoke inside of a building like the Miller Learning Resources Center can damage books and discolor architecture.
The solution to keeping students healthy and our campus’ resources in good tact is simple: smokers need to stand farther away from the door when smoking. It is only common courtesy.
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