Thank you for (not) smoking

Michael Pasco
Contributing Writer

Richmond, while by no means a big city like New York or Chicago, is still a city. With that diverse, urban environment comes a certain atmosphere that is starkly different from more rural areas with which many VCU students may be more familiar. A big part of the atmosphere is the scent of cigarette smoke that lingers in the air around campus.

When incoming freshmen apply for housing at VCU, one of the final options after choosing their preferred halls is to choose whether they have a preference for living with a smoker or not. This act is a gesture offered by VCU, which, if space allowed, would allow students to live as comfortably as possible when they do move in.

That single checkbox, however, polarizes the populace into students who approve of smokers and students who do not. It also hints at the type of environment that they could expect to live in when they finally moved in to the grand city of Richmond.

As anyone that has attended “Love ‘N Liquor” at the beginning of the semester knows, most people at VCU aren’t smokers. Statistics show only a small fraction, around 8 to 12 percent, of the populace smokes cigarettes. But that small minority is a sizable one and overshadows the fact that the majority of VCU students don’t smoke.

The litter of cigarette butts on the sidewalk is highlighted and gives a false impression of Richmond as a smoker’s city.

On a social and personal level, there’s nothing wrong with smoking; partaking in the habit does not make you a person of ill repute. President Obama smoked, Albert Einstein smoked and Sigmund Freud smoked.

But I do feel that smokers should be better aware of their surroundings and recognize that not everyone smokes or can tolerate the smell of smoke. The EPA has found that exposure to second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer in non-smokers. I do not advocate banning smoking altogether, or that smokers be limited to specific areas, just that smokers be more considerate in choosing where, how and when they smoke. It’s also important not to litter the area with cigarette butts.

At the same time, non-smokers mustn’t look at smokers as damaging our school and community, but as people that have made choices about how they live their lives. If you want to avoid the smell, find alternate routes to class or politely ask the offending person to blow their smoke in a different direction.

All in all, while not many students would want smoke puffed in their walkway, the environment is not as bad as it could be. Students – smokers or not – grossly overestimate the amount of people who do smoke, but it does have a noticeable effect on the air around Richmond.

If those who smoke, however, follow smokers’ etiquette, it keeps the locations on campus filled with clean air and allows nonsmokers to avoid those who do smoke if they really detest it that much.