<p>
[QUOTE]
Look if you want to smoke, fine I don't care. But your right to smoke does not give you the right to infringe on my right to breathe clean air.
[/QUOTE]
Precisely.</p>
<p>At my school nearly everyone smokes. It really sucks for us non-smokers because there is no way to escape the second hand smoke.</p>
<p>As an asthmatic, I would be THRILLED to see that policy adopted as even the smell of cigarette smoke on someone's clothing is enough to make me ill. As someone who has to take medication of a daily basis in order to breathe normally, it amazes me that some individuals will willingly inflict a similar condition on themselves by smoking. It's a foolish habit in so many ways.</p>
<p>Based on most of your reactions, it seems like the majority of you all would be willing to set up a system that would segregate smokers in separate facilities throughout each campus. They would have their own dorms, can only eat at smoking-only restaurants, would have their own bathrooms, their own classes, their own buses, and could only congregate with each other. And lord help them if they try to intrude on areas designated for the non-smokers to be, or even worse...form a friendship with a non-smoker! The most important aspect, however, is that these facilities must be "equal" with those for non-smokers.</p>
<p>Sound familiar...?</p>
<p>wannabazn, that's a GROSS exaggeration and you know it. My boyfriend smokes, my roommate last year smoked, my dad smokes, and quite of few of my friends smoke at least occasionally. I still like all of them even though they do it, but I WOULD prefer that they didn't do it around me so I could, you know, actually breathe clean air. I don't mind if I'm in the same room, classes, bathroom, or dorm as a smoker as long as they don't light up a cigarette where non-smokers have to breathe the smoke too. That's only respectful of them, not discriminatory of us. Comparing the "segregation" of smokers to the tribulations of minority races in the past is an insult to those people that are members of those races, and I am appalled by your comparison.</p>
<p>Last I checked, people weren't born smokers. There's the first place where your analogy entirely falls apart, wannabazn. Smokers have the choice to smoke or not to smoke.</p>
<p>Also last I checked, being next to someone of a different ethnicity didn't cause short-term breathing difficulties and pose the threat of long-term health problems, like being next to someone smoking.</p>
<p>I don't have a problem with smokers, as long as you don't subject me to your smoke. The smokers I know all understand that.</p>
<p>relax, it was a joke...although you guys really are treating smokers like second-class citizens. Last I checked, they have the same rights you do.</p>
<p>punkdudeus is the perfect example of the rude smoker</p>
<p>nothing more needs to be said, does it?</p>
<p>btw, I can have a cocktail and don't smoke and I would say 90percent of my friends can have a cocktail and don't smoke</p>
<p>and yes, if smokers could actually SMELL THEMSELVES they would know they stink, but becuase cigarettes hurt their sense of smell, they have no clue how stinky they are</p>
<p>a campus is private property in many cases, and if a person can't go a few hours without lighting up they have a serious addiction</p>
<p>i don't smoke cigarettes, i just think people need to relax about this whole issue, it's not that big a deal, you're not gonna get cancer by some guy/girl passing you by with a cigarette.</p>
<p>"don't like someone smoking? walk the other way"</p>
<p>Again, who is catering to who? Why should a large number of people have to circumvent the few who decide to make the area around them full of smoke?</p>
<p>What if I decided to stand outside your classroom door and zap everyone with radiation that passed by? Cause that's analogous to what a smoker is doing. Sure, no clear, direct physical harm. But that doesn't mean you don't get hurt by it.</p>
<p>oh please dood that's an even worse exaggeration than wannabaz.</p>
<p>u should be able to walk down a public sidewalk smoking a cigarette. people are really overreacting to cigarettes you're not gonna die by walking by someone or getting passed by someone smoking.</p>
<p>grow up and learn to deal with it. I don't smoke but i don't care if people smoke who are walking by me, or who smoke @ my apt. (but outside) or w/e, tolerate alternative lifestyles, stop trying to crush them.</p>
<p>Punkdudeus- I don't think you realize that some people CAN get very sick. Maybe not die, but I know personally that I get very scarily dizzy if I already am having an allergy attack (which is often) and a smoker walks by, and I have to really hope there's a bench nearby for me to collapse into because my knees go out. I can't even go to some friend's places because even if they don't smoke in the house, the smell of smoke that permeates them and therefore their homes will have my grasping for my inhaler.</p>
<p>I deserve to not have to worry about passing out because somebody has a disgusting habit. There are plenty of people who are much more allergic to smoke than me too.</p>
<p>After having read all these comments, I thought I'd weigh in again.</p>
<p>Last time I checked, smokers have already given up many of their rights: to smoke inside the buildings, hell, in class even. We don't smoke in the food court and we don't smoke in the football stadium. We smoke outside, and unfortunately at a campus as big as Auburn, you'll be around a lot of other people even outside.</p>
<p>But outside, it's a bit different. You're exposed to the open air, and the smoke can become diffuse and harmless. I've heard anecdotally that there are no real conclusive studies showing second hand smoke is harmful, but I invite other posters to link to such studies. I can understand that it might not be what you like, but in my opinion we should learn to deal with what we dislike rather than banning it.</p>
<p>Assume for the sake of argument I dislike people with bleached blond hair. Assume also that the majority of people dislike bleached blond hair. Does that give us - the majority - to ban bleached blond hair? I mean, people aren't born with bleached blond hair. They could stop anytime. And hey, they look better without it, right?</p>
<p>But the problem with that logic is obvious. We can't dictate our beliefs to others and enforce our standards where there is no right to do so. People have just as much right to smoke as you do to breathe clean air, if not more so; they have purchased the cigarettes, while you never paid for your right to breathe fresh air. I'm sure that if the situation were reversed, and the world were naturally covered with tobacco smoke, and you all bought clean bottled air (a la Spaceballs) then none of you would want to have to quit doing it. In my mind, it's the same difference.</p>
<p>Furthermore, for those of you who claim to be deathly allergic to cigarette smoke: there are those of us who can't be exposed to anything, for fear of dying (see the movie Bubble Boy). Some people can't stand sunlight. Does this mean we should ban everything that could make Bubble Boy sick, or should we blot out the sun? Or should those who can't stand smoke avoid it? This may sound unfair, but that's just how I see the world working.</p>
<p>I have been asked several times to put out my cigarette, and I happily complied each and every time. Did I care that I was throwing away money for no good reason? Not really. Being courteous to others means more to me than a cigarette. Sadly, it appears that an occasional few unpleasant minutes on one's way to class suffices to be rude, uncaring, and selfish to an already marginalized segment of the population.</p>
<p>I will lose all my faith in this University if the Dean and President ratify this without severely restricting it. I can concede areas close to the buildings and entrances, but I cannot in good conscious reconcile their making us smoke in the grass and parking lots.</p>
<p>Simple solution: Stop smoking. Hard? Yeah. But it solves your problem. ;)</p>
<p>Anyways, this is the way it works: when you smoke a cigarette near me, my right to breathe clean air is infringed upon. Until you are confined to smoking cigarettes where they cannot infringe upon my right to breath clean air, any smoking bans are not a further infringement upon your rights, merely a restriction upon you infringing upon mine.</p>
<p>@ whoever said cancerstick: LOL! I agree!</p>
<p>1of42: You have no more right to breathe clean air than I have to smoke. You perhaps have even less of a right to breathe clean air. You must have missed that part of my post. I admit it was fairly lengthy.</p>
<p>And your post is a bit derogatory. Maybe a simpler solution is for non-smokers to quit whining?</p>
<p>Another simple solution is for smokers to quit whining about where they can smoke.</p>
<p>And whoever is calling them cancer sticks, you really aren't helping anybody. You're just further polarizing an issue.</p>
<p>chuy, I hope you realize that my comment wasn't intended at the level headed posters, but at 1of42 specifically. If you dislike smokers smoking in public, that's fine. But to suggest we quit is disrespectful.</p>
<p>Did anyone read my last post, btw? Just curious.</p>
<p>I don't think it's disrespectful at all to suggest that someone quit smoking.</p>
<p>Quicksilver- Trust me, I know what it's like to have to change my ENTIRE life in order to stay healthy. I waste 2k a semester on a meal plan that I can't eat, I can't take part in most social events with friends because the food will make me sick, etc. I shouldn't have to be late for class because there is only ONE way to get there and it is a minefield of smokers who will make me sick... I already cannot be around many friends because the smell of smoke on their clothes and hair makes my throat close up. And it's not as if it's only a handful of people- anyone with asthma has the same problem.</p>
<p>^^not everyone with asthma has that problem. che guevara smoked 2 big ass cigars a day and he had severe asthma.</p>