With the non-smoking camplus policies being enforced throughout the Ventura County Community College District, nonsmokers will no longer be in the same danger as smokers put themselves in.

This policy forces students that choose to smoke out into the parking lots of their respective campuses if they wish to have a cigarette. This move by the district may have been the only smart thing they’ve done in years.

It has always been district policy that smoking was not permitted “during any instructional, programmatic, or official district or college function, in all District vehicles, in all District buildings, and within twenty feet of the exit or entrance of any building,” As stated in each of the VCCCD college catalogues.

The individual colleges were allowed to be much more restrictive if they wished. Then in 2005, Moorpark adopted a non-smoking campus policy stating that any tobacco smoking was to be done off campus in the parking lots. Oxnard then followed suit in 2007, with Ventura shortly thereafter in 2010. All three campuses now enforce a policy that says all smoking must be done in the parking lots. Nowhere else on campuses is this permitted.

With such a policy, students who do not smoke will have a new campus experience. It is needless to say that nonsmokers feel discomfort around tobacco smoke. If they enjoyed it then they would probably be smokers too.

However, there are other serious reasons for needing a policy this strict for smoking than to just allow students to feel more comfortable. There are clear health reasons involved in the manner. After all, the policies are there “in the interest of the health and welfare of students, employees, and the public…” as explicitly stated in the college catalogue.

For the first and most obvious reason, secondhand smoke is always a possibility. Whenever one sees a smoker on campus he or she is usually approximately 20 ft. away from the entrance to a building or classroom.

Since classrooms tend to have only one entrance, nonsmokers would have to walk around the smokers just to get to class. Any fool knows that air travels. It would be nearly impossible for a nonsmoker to make it to their location without inhaling side stream smoke. 

As stated by the Division of Periodontology from the University of Minnesota, “Secondhand smoke contains over 4000 chemicals including more than 40 cancer causing agents and 200 known poisons.”

With this information, one can see how even those who are in the vicinity of a smoker are put in the same dangers as him or her.

The second and equally important reason addresses the possible allergies of nonsmokers. Those with allergies understand that coming into contact with the wrong food or substances can result in any number of deadly reactions. The more likely reaction from a side stream smoke would be airway constriction.

Many people, from infants to the elderly and even asthmatics are prone to reactions from cigarettes. Although it is not an allergen per se, it produces similar effects. Without proper and immediate treatment of smoke irritations, consequences can be dire for the nonsmoker.

As I see it, with these dangers in mind, does it really seem worth it to allow smoking on any area as public as a college campus?