Butts out

As 2007 approaches, Gov. Tim Kaine has already decided on a New Year’s resolution for Virginia: to quit smoking. By that time, though, VCU will have beaten him to it by two months.

On Oct. 26, Kaine signed Executive Order 41, banning smoking cigarettes from all state-owned buildings and vehicles. Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the order seeks to eliminate second-hand smoke’s health effects on state employees. Public universities fall under the order’s jurisdiction, but University President Eugene P. Trani signed a new policy Oct. 31 that declared all school buildings to be “no smoking” as well, going into effect two months before the state law.

“We were just a little tiny step ahead,” said Cindy Andrews, executive director of human resources at VCU.

Since Nov. 1, VCU’s new Smoking in the Workplace policy bans smoking in nearly all buildings except for certain Medical Center campus labs used to study the effects of smoking. Before then, all buildings had to provide “no smoking” areas, but smoking was otherwise allowed unless specifically prohibited in each building.

The new policy still allows the Department of Residential Life and Housing to designate the smoking status for dorm rooms.

Dorm room smoking policy changed in 1998 when problems occurred after converting the former Capital Medical Center into West Grace Street Student Housing. The high-sensitivity smoke detectors installed while the building was a hospital frequently went off when students smoked cigarettes in their rooms.

Since then, both new and old VCU residence halls have prohibited smoking.

The only dorm rooms that still allow smoking, pending both roommates agreement, are in the Broad and Belvidere Apartments and Capital Garage Apartments, both occupied by upperclassmen. Considering that the only indoor locations at VCU that allowed smoking before can continue doing so, Andrew said reactions to the policy change have been only positive.

“Nobody raised an eyebrow or batted an eyelash,” she said about the new policy when it went on the books.

Others are downright excited.

“We are doing the happy dance,” said Linda Hancock, director of the Office of Health Promotion, about the policy.

“What I am hoping will happen is it will be one more reason for smokers to come over and quit,” said Hancock, who has promoted smoking cessation and prevention at VCU for 15 years. “Any time you raise prices, any time you make it more uncomfortable to smoke, people who wanted to quit anyway start researching new ways to do so.”

Research shows middle school and high school as the places where students begin smoking, Hancock said. College is where they learn to quit.

“Most people don’t smoke, and most smokers, probably 70 percent plus, want to quit,” Hancock said. “If you’re a half-pack-a-day smoker, there is no way you are not tired of paying the man for your cigarettes. You want to quit; it is just really hard to do.”

Hancock cited statistics showing only 21 percent of Virginians smoke, a number that has slowly decreased since the first surgeon general’s warning in the 1960s that smoking can kill. But the progress has slowed down, she said.

“The quitting rates have sort of stagnated,” she said. “In the last couple years they have started stabilizing nationally.”

Although Hancock said she feels new legislation at VCU and in Virginia should help to decrease the percentage of smokers, others questioned the new laws.

“I do not know of any state-owned buildings that you can smoke in anyway,” said sophomore Rebecca Waranch.

Over the past decade, indoor smoking locations around campus have slowly dwindled. The second floor in the University Student Commons and the entranceway to the School of Business building both used to allow smoking. A special smoking room on the second floor of the business building existed until last year.

By the time of the announcement, however, almost every VCU building was already smoke-free.

After noting that smoking had unofficially all but disappeared from VCU buildings, Andrews said human resources decided to make the policy uniform.

While smoking around building entrances was also unofficially against the rules, it is now officially prohibited school-wide.

Although freshman forensic science major Blair Turpin, who has smoked for five years, said she does not mind having to smoke outside, she said she still does not appreciate that people consider nonsmokers’ desires more important.

“It gets on my nerves when people say nonsmokers should have rights, so we should ban smoking,” Turpin said. “Then you’re taking away rights from smokers, too.”

Others, however, feel keeping smoking out of schools is the right thing to do.

“I do not want the kid next to me smoking when I am taking a test,” said Lee Connally, a graduate student of elementary education.

Despite his support for the new Virginia and VCU policies, Connally said he does not agree with expanding smoking bans any further.

“I know that some states are banning smoking from bars,” Connally said. “That is kind of dumb.”

Waranch agrees.

“Banning smoking in bars would not be a good idea,” Waranch said. “Smoking is kind of associated with drinking.”

Hancock, however, said second-hand smoke in bars, restaurants and other workplaces should be banned.

“If you work in a smoky bar for eight hours, it’s like the equivalent of a half-pack of cigarettes,” Hancock said.

Hancock cited a recent ban on indoor workplace smoking in Minnesota. For six months the heart attack rate went down, she said, until legislators repealed the law, and heart attack rates rose back to their former levels.

“Even just being in a smoky bar for half an hour increases your risk for platelet aggregation, and people get heart attacks and strokes,” she said.

“I don’t think people understand how strong the data is about second-hand smoke,” she said. “My students are not going to see cancer and heart attacks because college students are too young. But allergies, asthma, colds, coughs, upper-respiratory infections can all also come from second-hand smoke.”

Hancock mentioned award-winning comedian Rene Hicks, who ran track in college and has never smoked, yet was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago.

“She is performing now with half of a lung missing,” Hancock said. “The only thing they can point to is her performing in smoky comedy clubs. That was her only risk factor.”

In addition to health concerns, Hancock said banning smoking counter intuitively helps sales at places like bars.

“Here’s the good news about eliminating second-hand smoke: Business goes up, not down,” she said. “When you make all bars and restaurants smoke-free, the majority of people, the 80 percent that don’t smoke, go out more often. It actually improves your economy. Everybody’s afraid to make their bars smoke-free, because they feel like they’re going to lose a certain customer base. But if it’s across the board, everybody wins.”

According to a Zagat Survey, 23 percent of New York Cityresidents ate out more often after smoking was banned in restaurants there in 2003. Only 4 percent reported going to restaurants less often. Zagat also found the number of restaurant jobs increased.

“Also, if you allow smoking inside it takes more coats of paint to cover the walls and replacement carpets for cigarette burns,” Hancock said. “When it comes down to the state system, they are only going to save money. One, they will not have as big of insurance medical bills; but two, just the upkeep on the maintenance and facilities will be so much less.”

With such goals in mind, Virginia Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke, proposed a bill similar to Minnesota’s in January 2006 that would have expanded the 1990 Indoor Clean Air Act and made Virginia “smoke-free.” Nearly all publicly used buildings, including offices, restaurants and bars, would have prohibited smoking. The bill, SB 648, passed 21 to 18 in the Senate but died in a House of Delegates committee in March.

Similar smoke-free laws currently outlaw smoking in restaurants in 15 states, while another 11 states ban smoking in bars and all other workplaces. Another 188 U.S. cities and counties in states without such laws have instituted similar restaurant smoking bans, while 125 more have outlawed smoking in bars, and 309 are doing the same with all other workplaces. No Virginia city or county has such laws.

While state smoke-free legislation failed this year, Hancock said she knows it will eventually pass.

As far as VCU’s future goes, Andrews said she does not foresee an extension of the smoking ban to courtyards and other areas outside school buildings. Still, she said, it could happen at some point.

Hancock said limitations for smokers should be seen as favorable, not discriminatory.

“I really like smokers; they are interesting people,” Hancock said. “They are not bad people with a bad habit. They are good people with a tough addiction. And that is why I do not see these policies as discriminatory against smokers, but helping them to do what they really want to do anyway.”

For students wishing to quit smoking, Hancock advised calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or visiting the Office of Health Promotion in the Sports Medicine Building next to the Stuart C. Siegel Center, where students can get a free quitting kit with candy and two smoking cessation pills.