Seven-time Tour de France winning cyclist and Plano native Lance Armstrong may have gone to Austin to promote the latest step in his campaign against cancer, but his proposal of a statewide ban on public smoking reaches beyond the Capitol to the UH campus.
‘I can understand maybe a parking garage because it’s sort of enclosed, but smoking outside ‘hellip; I don’t think that should be banned because it’s outside, it’s open air, and there’s wind,’ University Studies freshman Brian Philippus said. ‘I mean, where are people supposed to smoke? Inside their houses?’
Armstrong, successful in his involvement with Proposition 15, which procured $3 billion for Texas cancer research, was encouraged to join forces with the Smoke-Free Texas initiative to ban smoking from public buildings, he told The Houston Chronicle on Jan. 16.
‘Smoke-Free Texas is a logical extension of what we’ve done with Proposition 15. Polls overwhelmingly show that the people of Texas want smoking banned from public places,’ Armstrong told the Chronicle.
The January Survey of Texas Voters conducted by Baselice & Associates, Inc. polled 601 voters on smoke-free law, the importance of rights of smokers versus customers and the hazards of secondhand smoke. In the results, 55 percent of voters heavily favored the smoke-free options, and 20 percent said they truly oppose them.
According to a National Cancer Institute report, secondhand smoke kills 53,000 non-smoking Americans yearly. Outreach counselor Lorraine Schroeder of the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center is hoping to help reduce that number.
Schroeder heads a free program for UH smokers called the Fresh Start Program. The program will be four, one-and-a-half hour sessions from March 24-31 and April 7-14.
‘The program addresses a smoker’s behavior, thoughts and feelings and teaches them how to cope with those,’ Schroeder said. ‘The instructors offer the strategies, and the class offers support to each other.’
Fresh Start only drew two participants last semester, Schroeder said, but the low turnout may partially reflect the relatively low number of smokers at UH.
‘There is a very small percentage of students who smoke on campus,’ Schroeder said. ‘In the United States, the percentage has dropped below 20 percent for the first time in ‘hellip; many years.’
In a poll conducted by the Recreation and Wellness Center, 5 percent of students polled said they smoke daily; 8.3 percent said they smoke once a week or more.
According to the 2008-2009 University of Houston Student Handbook, it is one of the responsibilities of the students on campus to report instances of smoking in buildings to the Fire Marshal’s Office.
Smoking outdoors is prohibited on campus at any University-owned or leased property where smoking would provide a fire or safety risk. The smoking ban also includes any University-owned or leased stadium or event area where people are crowded together.’
There are exceptions to the Smoking Policy, such as the campus’ Conrad N. Hilton Hotel and where designated smoking and nonsmoking areas are to be approved by UH President Renu Khator. Approved research can also include smoking.
According to the handbook, the president can make exceptions to these rules wherever deemed appropriate, as can participants in president-approved research.
Students who violate policy are subject to fines not to exceed $500.
‘It should be the choice of the establishment whether they allow smoking and make sure that everyone knows,’ Philippus said. ‘If you don’t want to go where smoke is, don’t go to that particular restaurant.’
Hotel and Restaurant Management sophomore Taylor Salazar disagrees. He said that Armstrong’s proposed ban on smoking outside of public buildings is good, and that he doesn’t think the restaurant and bar scene was affected when smoking was banned.
‘People don’t go anymore (to a restaurant or bar) if they smoke and can’t smoke there, but then again, the people who didn’t go to begin with because it was so smoky are now going,’ Salazar said. ‘So, I think it kind of equaled out.’
Texans are showing their support of the ban, Armstrong told the Chronicle.
‘I don’t want to infringe on the rights of what people do on their own time, but you shouldn’t smoke in public places,’ Armstrong told the Chronicle. ‘You can’t risk others’ lives.’
Additional reporting by Jasmine Harrison and Solange Inzillo
