<p>Pfft. They got rid of this "problem" and the taxes too haha :D</p>
<p>Wow, this is just ridiculous. People who get lung cancer because of secondhand smoke are usually those constantly around smokers (i.e. best friends, parents, siblings, relatives, etc.) Not because they pass some random student and inhale their smoke for 1 second once or twice a week.</p>
<p>Can't they just do a rule saying you can't smoke within 25 feet of a building? That's what my school has and all parties involved are perfectly fine with it.</p>
<p>let ppl smoke outside. that simple...</p>
<p>The reason (the ONLY reason) this doesn't sit well with me is government encroachment on free will. People can do whatever the hell they want within reasonable parameters, enforcing these parameters is the role of government -- not imposition on the public. I'm not gonna lie, I hate smoking. There isn't a benefit. It's disgusting, it's dirty, etc. If there were a ban on smoking proposed, I would be in favor on principle. But that's why our government works the way it does, so that no one person has the power to 'decree' that. On purely political grounds, I would say that this is fundamentally wrong -- I'd hope the public would all be on one side despite their personal issues with smoking, because we all have our virtues and vices. If the g-men come knockin' 'round, telling me I can't chew my fingernails anymore, I would hope the public would be on my side in seeing how incredibly ridiculous that is in the same way.</p>
<p>absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>just wondering, is it also illegal to drive without a seatbelt on in PA (or at these Uni's?)</p>
<p>Well, I go to a school in a major city and there are a couple thousand students at my school. Honestly, every time I go outside there's three people at least smoking on the steps of the building. When I walk, the breeze pushes the smoke into my face. It's really annoying and I wish they'd stop smoking. But I'm not sure how much of a good idea this ban is. Certainly I wish everyone at my school would just stop smoking, but somehow I think this is going to **** people off more than anything else.</p>
<p>"Reaping what I sow" would be the eventual onset of lung cancer, which has seemingly not happened yet. This is just a good whip cracking by the Truth bandwagon. </p>
<p>I'm a good smoker, by the way. I would never smoke indoors, not even places it's permitted. I am the one person who still walks my filters to the garbage can. If I were to ever catch my hypothetical little sister smoking, I would surely take them away from her. It's revolting, and if I don't stop it will surely kill me. I never should have started (I started when I was kicking a drug habit, not that that's an excuse, but maybe more understandable.) and think about stopping after every drag. Still there's absolutely no reason to ban smoking outdoors. What harm does it cause? Unless the smokers are blowing it into directly into pedestrian's faces or brandishing their cigarettes like mini-flame throwers, absolutely none. Why cant I be free to slowly kill myself on-campus? My lungs are probably going to grow tumors the size of bigger lungs and they want to take away my parking space? That's just cruel.</p>
<p>Oh, and MBP, yes seatbelts are mandatory in PA. I always wear my seatbelt, by the way. Instant death is what I'm afraid of. You'd never see it coming.</p>
<p>Oh, and no, that 25-feet away from the building thing isn't what we have. Though it would be more understandable. Like most high schools have policies that state one can't smoke anywhere on "school property". Same thing.</p>
<p>I remember my undergrad school had a similar policy to the 15' to the entrance to any building. So, they'd just move next to a classroom window that wasn't adjacent to the door and smoke underneath the shelter of the building there. I like how my English classroom smelled worse than my chainsmoking grandmother's house.</p>
<p>Good riddance to those death sticks.</p>
<p>I think the following are pertinent questions and observations. They may bend towards a conclusion; I remain austere.</p>
<p>Is it legal to have sex in public (plain sight) in Pennsylvania?</p>
<p>Is it legal to leave fuming toxic fluids or other hazardous substances in Pennsylvania public property? </p>
<p>Is it legal to flash bright lights and boom loud noises in Pennsylvania public property?</p>
<p>Plain sight public sex is not (really) harmful. A flash encounter will do you almost nothing, though, and an excuse will be easy to make for a child's inquiry into said flash encounter.</p>
<p>Prolonged or intense exposure to bright lights and loud noises can cause pain and inhibit sensory processes in the long-term? A little bit will do you very little, though.</p>
<p>What among the preceding is worse than smoking?</p>
<p>So because having sex in public and those other things aren't harmful, smoking should also be illegal? Sorry, but that's a ridiculous argument.</p>
<p>(Italics inserted)
[quote]
So because having sex in public and those other things aren't harmful, smoking should * also * be illegal?
[/quote]
Also?
At the time of my first post in this thread, I didn't know the answers to all the questions asked therein.
More importantly,
(Bold, underline inserted)
[quote]
** I remain austere. **
[/quote]
[quote]
Sorry, but that's a ridiculous argument.
[/quote]
I won't use that argument myself (it's just not surgical enough), but "Ridiculous" seems to be a rather harsh rejection.</p>
<p>I always liked my nicotine and am an ex smoker. However, I am all for this decision. I don't think any organization/corporation should have to shoulder the burden of active smokers on their health care plans.<br>
Our company's health care premiums go up up up every year...it is so frightening when we don't know how we can cover an entire office of employees at the quoted rates. We have a generation of people who have compromised their health and that of their children through poor diet, epidemic childhood obesity and smoking. Time for our culture to make it harder to smoke and harder to stay insured if you do. Time for our culture to take a hard hard look at the reasons our diets are terrible. We need to make changes culturally, clearly. I would probably still be smoking if I wasn't made to be very uncomfortable by constant information about cancer and my imposition on others, and also the way my smoking would impact our health care contract Bottom Line.
an ex Virginia Slims idiot
ps..still miss it...some of us are programmed to like nicotine just like some of us are more susceptible to diet disasters.</p>
<p>The tobacco industry has used the same weak argument some have presented in this thread..."it's only a little second-hand smoke," etc. But many people, my self included, are very sensitive to even "a little smoke" and many more don't wish to be exposed to the "little smoke."</p>
<p>We began to speak up, first with our voices and then with our dollars. It began with smoking sections on airplanes. The tobacco industry complained about that, after all, it was "just a little second-hand smoke." Can you imagine, today, sitting in the last row of the non-smoking section just in front of the much smaller smoking section? Even smokers declined to request seats in the smoking section because it was overwhelming. They would get up and go back to the smoking section for a smoke, but then they would return to their seat in the non-smoking section.</p>
<p>Since then the public has demanded smoke-free restaurants, smoke-free workplaces, smoke-free hotel rooms and smoke-free rental cars. Private enterprise complied for economic reasons...that was what the market wanted. States have passed laws banning smoking in all indoor places open to the public or employees and even outdoor public venues, such as sports stadiums. That's what the public wanted.</p>
<p>Major research hospitals recently began prohibiting smoking anywhere on their campus and even on adjacent public streets. Why? Because they are in the business of promoting health and having groups of employees outside smoking wasn't an image they wanted their clients to see when coming to their facilities for health care. The result is most smokers employed by the hospitals have reduced their consumption, and THEY, the smokers, are now pleased...the rules forced them to do something they didn't have the will power to do alone: cut down or quit.</p>
<p>Even France has banned smoking everywhere but private homes and the streets, effective at the beginning of this year. Anyone who visited France in the 1960's through the 1990's wouldn't believe the change today. Back then, smoking was pervasive in the country and the tobacco industry played on the residents' strong sense of individual rights. </p>
<p>The next step for the cancer societies and related health groups is Asia. Once thought impossible, the experience with France has shown that with a little help, the non-smoking public can be proactive in protecting their health.</p>
<p>The smokers who complain that they will have to drive off campus to feed their addiction will soon find that they can do without a cigarette for longer periods of time, if there is an economic cost (time, fuel) associated with their choice. A year from now most of them will be smoking less and feeling better as a result.</p>
<p>Bravo, to the Pennsylvania state colleges.</p>
<p>Good thing Temple didn't, because we would have riots.</p>
<p>The large corporation that my husband and I work for banned outdoor smoking a few months ago. Smokable area isn't within walking distance. It has been very difficult for H, and it definitely affects his productivity (which he hates!!). He is upset that the company refuses to acknowledge any hardship; just flippantly expects company-sponsored (or other) cessation programs to solve everything - tho they all have lousy success rates. H feels very bad at how he's being treated after 20+ years of conscientiousness and loyalty (not to mention <5 total sick days, BTW). Some others have felt forced into early retirement because of this - that's how strong the addiction is.</p>
<p>Just because someone became addicted to nicotine when they were young doesn't mean they aren't valuable employees, are not considerate of others, don't have feelings, and it doesn't matter how they are treated.</p>
<p>But..... if any of you high-school CC'ers out there are reading this - please, please don't start!!! You can't imagine how grateful I am that I turned away before what could have been the point of no (or extremely difficult) return!</p>
<p>People who get extremely ill from cigarette smoke are called hypochondriacs. Just because a few people might feel a little sick from it (BS) doesn't mean it should be banned everywhere. I removed Penn State from my list because of this. I don't want a school where everything I do will be regulated. I already had that in high school.</p>
<p>The only thing I hate more than an obnoxious smoker is the person going around complaining about how sick it makes them. You're full of it! The world doesn't revolve around you, and you're an adult. If you don't want to deal with smoke then walk around it. Learn to deal with a little bit of smoking instead of being inflexible jerks. It's sad, though not surprising, that many people on this forum think it's okay to be totally inflexible to even the worst of habits, and feel that the entire world revolves around them.</p>
<p>^^^^^^
Same with rap music, maybe we should ban that too.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the policy on my campus is, since I don't live in the dorms, and people seem to smoke wherever they want on campus. What I do know is that I'm glad I don't go to a school with a heavy-handed ban. It isn't because I smoke, as for me, it is just the rare cigar, and not on campus. But the idea that people, in their own home, which college is for students, cannot smoke anywhere, is insane. And really, you cannot enforce it. Stupid, overly broad rules encourage people to break them. Besides, liberals are a much greater threat to our health, and yet I see an active chapter of the College Democrats. So until they ban that, they'll have to pry my cigar from my cold, dead hands.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I removed Penn State from my list because of this. I don't want a school where everything I do will be regulated.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Penn State doesn't care. There are thousands of kids dying to go their each year.</p>