Over the past year the DU Health & Counseling Center along with the DU Tobacco Taskforce has been researching the possibility of a 100 percent indoor/outdoor tobacco free policy for our campus.

Over 100 universities and colleges across the country have adopted similar policies, and we predict that over the next decade tobacco-free campuses will become the norm.

Why go tobacco-free? Because there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. To be blunt, secondhand smoke kills. Fifty thousand non-smokers die each year due to involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in the U.S. alone.

Think secondhand smoke isn’t a big deal outside? Think again. Outdoor levels of secondhand smoke are equally as harmful as indoor levels. Even brief exposure to smoke as you’re walking into a building can cause or exacerbate heart disease, asthma, allergies and bronchitis (not to mention the smell of smoke on clothes).

A tobacco-free policy change emphasizes the rights of non-smokers by creating a clean-air environment.

Some like to tout that people have the “right to smoke.” The fact is that there simply is no constitutional “right to smoke” as smokers are not a category protected under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. We share the sentiment that people have the right to choose to smoke.

A Tobacco-Free DU would not take away this choice that about 8% of DU students currently make on campus.

Rather, tobacco users simply would not be able to use on campus where their choice negatively impacts the health of all people around them. One out of every two DU students report encountering secondhand smoke exposure.

Most DU students support this progressive policy change – now is the time for your voice to be heard.

This policy change is about the rights of people who choose not to use tobacco yet continue to be negatively affected by the choice of those who do.

Check out www.du.edu/duhealth in November for more FAQs and information.