Campus Wide Smoking Ban
 

Coming from a non-smoker this is the stupidest law ever. I haven't heard a single respectable argument to back it up. Wear a gas mask people....



*For background, people are trying to pass a campus wide smoking ban on the grounds that any second hand cigarette smoke is a dangerous amount.

Yeah...that sounds like a stupid law to me. Sure have no smoking in and around food service and eating areas, and buildings, but the whole campus? That's just a bit rude if you ask me.

mind you, it's against the law to smoke in school grounds over here. Not on campus grounds though as far as I know.

Smaller campuses I can see, school grounds (elementary, middle, and high) definitely, but remember that our campus is over 2,700 acres!

Our current rule of no smoking in twenty feet of any building is rational, reasonable from a health standpoint, but this seems to be just a symbolic law of trying to be more/just as "progressive" as everyone else.

The campus where I work is state property and is supposed to go "smoke free" as of June 2009.

Given the amount of nicotine consumed by mental health patients and mental health workers, I don't see this working easily.

We're already making plans on whose cars will be the designated smoking areas, and may continue to insist on use of the Butt Hutt, an enclosed courtyard off the chart room, since the only way for the State Police to monitor it would be to hover their chopper overhead, and they have a lot more important things to do, most days. Like botching a hostage situation and getting nurses killed.

In an interesting move, my hospital installed brand new ashtrays on the outside of the building the day after the upcoming ban was announced.

When Ohio voters saw fit to pass the stupidest law ever, taking away the rights of private tavern owners, and due in a large part to two concurrent issues on the ballot that confused the hell out of most people, I expected to see my (then current) campus go non-smoking. I admired the president's decision to designate very specific smoking areas saying he agreed with a person's right to smoke if they want even if he did not, and to place designated areas where they are easily avoided by those who want to be nowhere near smoke.

It's basically the same thing here.

However, at our local hospital...you cannot smoke on campus at all. Not in your car, not in your car as you're driving in the driveway or out of the driveway...no where.

A hospital I can understand, but think the "in your car" thing is pretty stupid...but at a community college you just about have to make concessions for smokers or risk losing students. Every student counts in enrollment and retention and enrollment and retention are the goal.

I hear rumors that they may put another vote on the ballot, allowing Joe Schmoe who owns a damn beer and shot bar to decide if he wants smoking allowed in the establishment that he pays for. I also heard from a bartender the other day they got a written warning based on "two guys from somewhere else who reported they saw someone smoking in the bar." She was there, and saw no such incident.

Yeah...Gestapo State anyone?

Obama will never visit your campus.

Yeah, but Boehner is a chain smoking machine!

Wait, does this apply to joints????

In theory you're not supposed to smoke anywhere on the grounds of our local hospital; there are signs up all over. Don't know if they brought in a rule-change or have just decided not to police it but every time I've been over there, I've smoked outside, just a little past the door and there've always been other people smoking and there's one of those bins with an ashtray at the top.

I suspect if they tried to enforce it they'd have riots on their hands, with their staff if not the patients.

At uni, it's pretty much a smoke where you want outdoors campus. There are certain areas where you can't like outside the little lobby of the union building and so on, but mostly it's anywhere outdoors. It would be impossible to police anyway: Leeds campus is one of the biggest in the country, it encompasses a bloody great chunk of the city along with the purposebuilt campus buildings. That means lots of hidden walkways, twisting paths, carparks, parks, houses.

When I first got there in 2006, the union cafe still had a smoking area; very separate from the rest of the cafe. That feels like a long time ago, and the idea of lighting up inside a public building seems kind of bizarre to me now. Funny how quickly we adapt to new assumptions.

You should also be permitted to urinate anywhere you want.

Whew...that's a relief...I just pissed all over your living room carpet.


Ya asshat. :p

About 5 years ago, my dad, who is a physicist, did a year's sabbatical in Austria. The students at the Austrian university were like chimneys. But his optics lab had all this expensive optic equipment, and smoke leaves a residue on the glass that has a significant impact on the experiments, so smoking was banned in the lab itself. He said that after spending a day in the clean lab, and just walking out into the hallway, it was always a shock. All of his lab assistants would immediately grab their cigarettes and start puffing away, surrounding him with a cloud of smoke. He was always glad to spend the entire day in the lab so he could have fresh air.

The Big Lebowski: I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?


The Dude: That rug really tied the room together.

I love the Dude. He shall abide.

Must have Coen brothers movie marathon soon!

We rented it on Saturday night. I had watched it maybe 8-9 years ago with my wife and her brother, and I liked it a lot. They both hated it. Recently, with the tenth anniversary giving it a bump, my wife's curiosity was peaked. She saw a short collection of clips from it, but didn't remember it at all, and wanted to watch it. So we did. I liked it even more the second time I saw it, and she really enjoyed it this time. Great movie.

I love the Coen brothers. Have you seen Raising Arizona?

As to not liking then liking a movie: my ex tried to get me to watch Pulp Fiction, and the first time I totally didn't like it...just wasn't into it.

Now I've probably seen it 30 times and it is in my top 10.

Sure. Fargo is probably my favorite though.

Yeah, that's a good one.

I don't know though...O Brother Where Art Thou is another movie I've watched over and over and over.

I need to find a copy of No Country for Old Men.

Oh, then they won't mind the bonfire...Am I right?


I love No Country for Old Men. 2 of my friends worked on it..They haven't watched it yet, thinking it will suck. They are WrOnG.

I was the same way about Spongebob. I thought it was so juvenile and beneath me until I gave it a chance and now it cracks me up. Pulp Fiction, though...meh...I could never really get into it. Like one of those inside jokes that someone keeps telling but I can't seem to get my brain around.

I like most of the Coen movies. I saw No Country for Old Men and wanted to open a vein, so that was not so much for me. I loved The Big Lebowski and Oh Brother Where art Thou.

PF definitely needs to be watched more than once before it starts making sense. I think it's either a love it or hate it kind of movie, though.

I need to watch some of the older CoBro's movies, like Hudsucker Proxy and Miller's Crossing.

I liked the Hudsucker Proxy. Haven't seen Miller's Crossing, though.

Back to the OT - the main reason I can see for a campus-wide ban is the damn MESS smokers make. Packets, wrappers and butts, butts, butts, butts.

Somehow, reasonably civic-minded people think that the wrapper and foil from a cigarette packet don't count. And butts can be flicked anywhere - they're not litter!

When I smoked in a public place, I would use an ashtray. If there wasn't one I would extinguish my butt and bin it next opportunity. I didn't even like flicking my ash on the ground - and certainly not on the carpet, as I saw MANY people do in pubs, even when an ashtray was on the table! I would always upbraid those with me if I saw them doing it.

Okay, it's not specifically smokers - there are plenty of litterers out there. But it seems to me that smoking-littering has become worse here since the indoor smoking ban. Kinda like some people's reaction to the removal of litter bins on station platforms due to the IRA using them as bomb containers. "FINE THEN! I'LL JUST THROW IT ON THE FLOOR!"

The sorry thing is that then as well as now, it is unsightly, unpleasant, anti-social and unnecessary. Inconvenient? Yes. Suck it up, Mary.

Same reason I hate the frisbee golf game setup at out local state park. Frisbee golfers apparently think their cig butts, drink containers, and chip bags aren't littler - especially when they place them neatly up against a tree, or jam them in to the branches. They generally have unleashed dogs with them too... what could possiblee go wrong... fucking frisbee golfer jerks...

I've bitched at people for throwing their butts right freaking next to the little smoker tower ashtray thingy...that is true.

But people are rude, smokers not necessarily more rude than people who run into you with a shopping cart and don't apologize, no more rude than litterers who think it's ok to litter ANYTHING, no more rude than the asshole who cuts you off in traffic because his time and space are more important than yours, no more rude than people who dismiss and judge others for no apparent purpose other than to get a dig in, and no more rude than someone who is a self-proclaimed logical and emotionless person replying to a comment about bar ownership and rights saying something assholey like "blah blah blah urinate anywhere blah..."

Blah

But it's OK to be an ass to a smoker because they are weak, and stupid, and they won't live long anyway. :rolleyes:

btw...pierce is not a smoker.

I love disc golf - used to play all the time. used to carry a bag to pick up other people shit too.

Several people here have seen my outdoor smoking behavior ... if there is no actual ashtray available, I twist the ember off the butt, crush the butt making sure it's actually out, and stow it in the watch pocket of my jeans until I'm within reach of a proper receptacle. If I know in advance I'll need one, sometimes I'll bring an old Altoids tin.

I do that too, wolf. I've forgotten about butts in my pocket and later I'm like "what the heck is that?"

I'd love to quit smoking...someday. I was all belligerent when our law passed, saying "well I was GOING TO quit but now I'm just going to keep smoking out of spite." It was tongue-in-cheek, as I know I'm only hurting myself. :)

I will sometimes flick away a cigarette end, but usually it goes into a bin. If there isn't a bin, I usually look for a grid or somesuch to drop it into. (unles I'm drunk in whch case it's not uppermost on my mind). From time to time I'll pocket it to deal with later.

I'm far from consistent. But what I won't do is flick it onto the street when there are bins or ashtrays nearby.

The thing that annoys me about smokers are those that smoke while driving, then flick their butts out, especially at night when i'm tired. I've gotten a fright when the cole explodes on the road, makes me think something has fallen off their car for a second.

Also, there are the most disgusting pigs ever who empty out their incar ashtray onto the road when they're stopped at the lights. Fucking foul no respect arseholes are they.

Good point about the litter. I'll tolerate a few clouds of smoke about, but the littering does piss me off. I am a bit down on recreational fishers for the same reason.
Dumping a butt that is still smoldering is IMHO criminal, at least in fire-prone areas like Australia.

thread/ I hate fishermen who dump trash into the ocean, any trash! /jack

Yeah...that's bad on so many levels. Every time we go for a walk on the beach we take a shopping bag with us, and it's rare for it not to be at least half full by the time we get back.

And let's not even get started on the damage plastic bags etc can do to turtles and dugongs even!

...or the plastic six-pack holders.

Yeah...all you've got to do is watch 'surfs up' to know how bad they can be!

Eh. Campus wide is a bit over the top. But having specific assigned areas to smoke is a good thing. Most military bases have them and have had them for a good 10 years and it has worked. It really helps with the litter of butts that is a product of the smoking habit.

I smoke in my truck and I always have a butt bucket handy...I do not flick. Yeah, I'll let ash out but that's not going to hurt anything. I yell at my students if they don't use the bucket too. There are many fire prone areas in the USA also, like Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona and Texas...basically the entire southwest.

Although if someone wants to burn down all of Los Angeles, I won't stop you!