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Letters to the Editor

Cigarettes are a threat

To the editor,

I guess you could say I'm one of those people who want to keep smokers contained. I have asthma and sometimes just walking through a cloud of smoke outdoors can cause me to use my emergency inhaler. I already use two oral inhalers to prevent attacks and my doctor doesn't want to increase the amount of steroids I need to inhale. Smoking inside a building or in a narrow access outside, where the smoke can accumulate, can force me to go elsewhere in order to breathe. An asthma attack can be fatal. I guess you could say I'm not ready to quit breathing yet.

Laura Budd

History senior

Smoke wanders

To the editor,

I am not a cigarette smoker. I believe in a confined space; no one should be forced to breath smoke. However, that means my beliefs and wants of a healthy life are infringing on the rights of smokers to smoke where they want to. There is an understanding that smoke is harmful to all people. So for the greater good of the majority of people, smoking is beginning to be band in buildings and other confined public spaces.

But it seems that there are some people who want more. As everyone is aware, vents are used to bring air into the confined spaces of classrooms in UA buildings. Asthmatics claim that their asthma becomes agitated form the cigarette smoke being brought into those classrooms through the air intake vents. Those asthmatics feel that their physical ailment entitle them to better air in the buildings. However, a 25 foot distance from buildings is not a solution. I have noticed that the vents on campus they are clearly marked with sings stating that it is an intake vent, and no one is to smoke around it. What else can be done?

But what is that you say? It still happens? Well, of course then.

I see that a distance from around the buildings is going to solve the problem. Everyone will be happy then. Wrong! Smoke wanders! If non-smokers are claiming that the smokers are smoking next to the vents, then make the UA enforce the rules on the smokers. But if the smokers are being considerate, then what do they want. If there is enough smoke to agitate asthmatics in buildings when there is no one smoking next to the vents, then there will still be enough smoke entering the buildings if people are 25 feet away.

Plus, what does this mean? All the smokers will be clumped together all over campus in the open areas. What will happen next is people will complain that they can't walk around campus without having to walk through smoke clouds. A smoking ban of distance is not the answer.

Here is an idea! Why don't the asthma sufferers force the university to upgrade their filter system to reduce the smoke intake into the building. Asthma is physical disability, right? There are elevators in every building and wheelchair ramps, everything has to be handicap accessible, so why not clean are for the asthma suffers. I understand that the money might not be available to do this for the asthmatics, but bummer. If the law says people who suffer from physical ailments get assistance to help them, in this case clean air so their asthma does not kick up, then it should be done.

But hurting others in the process of bettering yourself is not the answer. Forcing smokers to move should not be done. People talk about fair; there has to be a solution that both sides can agree on, both are better off if not unhappy. However non-smokers need to understand that smokers do not have to move. They have already.

The school needs to pick its brain to find a solution to this problem without moving the smokers more. I say more because they have been moved out of every public building. I am sure no one is against keeping smoke out of buildings, and I can see why it is so tempting to create a rule that is cheap and easy, but it is not fair. There has to be some possible rule out there that is fair!

Jordan Shoor

Elementary education sophomore