Two Colleges In Ohio County Consider Going Tobacco-Free
Posted: Jan 30, 2012 5:27 PMUpdated: Jan 30, 2012 5:27 PM
If you're a college student and you smoke or use chewing tobacco, your life may soon change dramatically.
The Ohio County Health Department has approached three colleges in the county about going completely tobacco-free.
Officials say two of them--West Liberty University and West Virginia Northern Community College--have shown interest in the concept.
WVNCC students know the buildings are smoke-free, so they go outside to smoke.
But if the whole campus goes tobacco free, the sidewalk outside the school will be off limits to smokers.
For nursing major Elizabeth Deck, will that be enough to prompt her to quit smoking?
"No!" she answers quickly. "No, I would just walk across the street, or go wherever they direct us to go, in order to smoke."
Because the campus is in the middle of the city, these students will be able to step across the street.
Not so at West Liberty University, where the campus is large and if it goes completely tobacco-free, smokers will have to walk a mile for a Camel.
"A campus that is in a more metropolitan area downtown would have less challenges than a campus that is in a rural setting or in an area that is all enclosed," says Howard Gamble, Ohio County Health Department administrator.
Gamble says this is not an effort to force smokers to quit.
He says it is an effort to force them to quit victimizing non-smokers with second hand smoke.
WVNCC's dean of community relations agrees.
Bob DeFrancis says if some people do quit, that's a good thing.
"What we've been talking about, and what I think would be the best thing to do would be to have some kind of partnership with either the health department or another entity to offer smoking cessation classes for people. This is an educational institution. You can be educated to quit smoking and that's something I think we ought to seriously consider."
Student Leslie Haubeil is a smoker, but she says the campus probably should go tobacco-free.
"For the people who don't smoke, I think it would be better," Haubeil admits. "Second hand smoke is the worst smoke, even if you're outside because there are other people who stand out there who don't smoke."
"Tobacco-free" means that not just cigarettes but chewing tobacco would be banned.
For now, they emphasize it's just in the talking stages.
But Howard Gamble says officials from WVNCC and WLU have indicated their desire to make their campuses tobacco-free.
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