Digest #15: This Month in Smoke-free News [Part 1]

After nearly two months, I'm back, and just as excited as ever to share the latest smoke-free news with you.

I'll start with some news that was brought to my attention by my grandmother (thanks Grandma!). It's more of a personal point of pride than anything else, but Klein Steel, my uncle Joe Klein's business that operates in the four major cities of upstate New York, has gone smoke-free. Check out the company's official policy announcement, which actually qualifies the decision as a tobacco-free policy. I haven't devoted much time to news about private workplace smoking bans, mostly because I trust in basic economics, which tells me that prospective employees who want to work in smoke-free environments will ultimately work for employers that establish these policies. Nevertheless, having recently visited my uncle's new corporate and manufacturing headquarters in Rochester, I can attest to the fact that Klein Steel is a great example of how some businesses are prioritizing employees' health by making educated, rational decisions about smoking policy.

...and now, a ridiculous 'quote of the month' transition into some university and state-level smoke-free news:

"You own the air just as much as I do...What's next? Are you going to legislate farts?" -Devanshu Narang, South Dakota State University

(No, Devanshu, nobody is ever going to regulate flatulence. Why? Because unlike smoking, it is a necessary, inevitable part of humanity--but thanks for the good laugh.)

The South Dakota State University student government approved a resolution that the student body will likely approve with a majority vote, despite the protests of Devanshu and friends. On a larger scale, however, the state of South Dakota recently succeeded in passing an extension of their public smoking ban, which will prohibit smoking in all restaurants, bars, and casinos. South Dakota is the 29th state to accomplish this. Who's going to be the 30th?

Mississippi demonstrated solid support for smoke-free change during the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout on November 18. Meanwhile, in Indiana, "the stars might be lining up" for a statewide ban to be voted on in 2011. A court in Ohio recently upheld a challenge to the state's workplace smoking ban.

With that said, I'd like to return to the subject of college and university smoking bans, because it is clear to me that this domain is where smoke-free policy change is going to continue occurring most rapidly. Since I wrote my column for The Daily Californian in January, at least 65 colleges have instituted smoke-free policies. That's about six per month, or three new smoke-free campuses for every two weeks that passed by in 2010. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. However, I'm not at all surprised. Despite the bureaucratic challenges that many student activists face in trying to enact smoke-free campus policies, these virtually amount to nothing in comparison to those that state law poses to legislators. College campuses are especially conducive to quick policy change that affects large numbers of people, that could, in turn, serve as a "test run" for change on a larger scale. This conjures up the federalist genius of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:

“It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system...that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” --Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1932

Of course, Brandeis' famous "laboratories of democracy" concept speaks to the idea of states as laboratories in which laws can be tested by trial and error for the nation to learn from, but I'm relating his model to colleges as laboratories for trying out smoke-free policy for states (and ultimately, the nation) to learn from. Colleges are the ideal venues for testing out often-controversial smoking bans; not only are they full with highly-opinionated people who can debate endlessly over the issue, but they are also full with the educated people who are going to be the future leaders of our country. After all, if it works in colleges, why shouldn't it work for the rest of society? I know there are several legitimate answers to this question, and I'll admit, I'm a bit biased as a recent graduate. But still--if we're going to start somewhere with smoke-free policy, why not start in the very places where it has been discovered and confirmed that smoking is an unhealthy practice? Whether or not you like my argument, this is the reality; the speed at which colleges establish smoke-free campuses is only going to increase over the next few years.

Speaking of which, the University of Oregon--which just happens to have the #2-ranked football team in the nation (see my last digest)--is going to be a tobacco-free campus in 2012. As I mentioned in October, the student body president initiated this reform. However, it sounds like this change wouldn't be happening without the $1 million contribution by locally-based PacificSource Health Plans, which is funding smoking cessation programs on campus. Perhaps corporate sponsorship and involvement can expedite smoke-free policy change at colleges. Alternatively, it appears that government may be a valuable resource as well: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allowed for $450,000 to be allocated toward making all southern Nevada colleges--most notably, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)--smoke-free by March 2012.

Okay--this is where things get extremely bittersweet for me. The University of Southern California (aka USC, aka the "University of Spoiled Children") might, just might, be going smoke-free. Chances are, if you're reading this blog, then you know me pretty well, and if you know me pretty well, you know how much I can't stand the thought of the USC Trojans (as a Cal Bear, I've naturally allowed my aversion to the school's athletics programs form negative associations with everything USC) ...Anyway, Peter Conti, who heads the school's Academic Senate, said, "If the students want this [smoke-free policy] to happen, it will happen." He's got the right idea, and I hesitate to type this, but: Fight on, Trojans.

...Yup, I just said that; if I can admit that USC is doing something right, then anything is possible. More to come later.

Happy Holidays!