Monday, November 14, 2011

North Haven Inheriting Smoke Free Policy

Quinnipiac's North Haven Campus will be completely tobacco-free starting August 13, 2012. The policy will extend to all employees, students, temporary workers and visitors.

"We would do this policy across all the campuses if we could," said Vice President of Human Resources Ronald Mason. " However, we can't at the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses because they are residential and people live here 24/7."

Only 252 colleges and universities prohibit smoking cigarettes and all forms of cigarettes use everywhere on campus, according to the American Lung Association. The only college that is 100% tobacco-free in Connecticut is the Hartford Community College.

Smoke-free campuses have become increasingly popular with schools such as the University of Memphis and University of Illinois.

There will be multiple levels of infractions for students and employees caught smoking cigarettes on the campus. Violations will be judged on a case-by-case basis for the time being.

"I think that making the North Haven Campus cheap cigarettes free is a very positive initiative," Emily Zwart, Junior said.

Zwart is a MAT student who travels to North Haven weekly for educational classes.

"Considering how it is widely accepted that cigarettes online is an extremely harmful substance to a person's overall health, it makes sense that a campus committed to health and medical education should be tobacco free," Zwart said.

She also said smoking cigarettes barriers provide an incentive to quit smoking cigarettes.

"It is, and should be, a person's right to decide to smoke cigarettes or not, but the more barriers that stand in the way and the more inconvenient the usage of tobacco becomes, the more people may be encourage to quit, and that means that more lives can be saved."

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