Smoking at Campus

Problem:
Based on a recent survey of some students that we did on this week, the result shows that our campus is having problems with the placements of the designated smoking areas at some of the entrances, specially the main entrance. Of those surveyed, 23% of them are smokers, and 77% are non-smokers. Also 59% has agreed that smoking should not be allowed near the door entrance, whereas 28% disagreed, and 18% had no opinion. The result also shows that 40% of the smokers do not smoke in the designated smoking areas. This problem affects the smoke-free environment.
A safe and healthy environment for work and study is a wish of most our students, faculty, staff, visitors, and guests. But Bad smell and poor image that create by smoking are occurring in some of the entrances of our campus. Most of the designated smoking areas in our campus are too close to the entrances. According to our campus map, there are 6 designated smoking areas, and more than 25 ashtrays around our campus. Every day at 5:00 PM, there are averagely 50 cigarette butts in each ashtray. For example, there are 3 ashtrays at the main entrance. Each ashtray has about 50-60 cigarette butts. Also there are a lot of cigarette butts around the grass and the area that not allow to smoke. It shows us there are more than 150 cigarettes have smoked by smokers around the main entrance. The pollution caused by cigarettes does not stop in the air. “I never use the main entrance when there are a lot of smokers”, one our campus’s student said.
Smoking near the entrances also affects many non-smokers by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is a mixture of two forms of smoke that comes from burning tobacco: smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke that exhaled by a smoker. California Environment Protection Agency stated that almost 50000 adult nonsmokers in the united Stated are dead each year because of secondhand smoke. Basing on the observation at the main entrance on October 7, 2009, Students used this door to enter and go out about 80 times per hour. On only 30 minutes (4-4:30PM) at the same day, there are 5 people were smoking at the designated smoking area, 2 people stood at the “No Smoking Area” sign to smoke. Also there are 2 people who smoked right at the corner of the entrance. In 30 minutes, they smoked totally about 13 cigarettes. Those cigarettes created a lot smoke. Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemical compounds. More than 60 of these are known or suspected to cause cancer. The nonsmokers who used the main entrance involuntarily inhaled the smoke that exhaled from smokers. It is very dangerous for nonsmokers.