Smoking on campus just keeps getting harder.

Last semester, university residence halls told smokers to move at least 50 feet away from the buildings after noise and health worries became an issue.

Now signs warding off smokers are springing up on buildings across campus.

"NO SMOKING: BUILDING FRESH AIR INTAKES ARE LOCATED NEARBY," read the blue and white signs. Variations warn against painting, idling a vehicle, or conducting any other activity that "produces hazardous vapors, gases, or particles" in the vicinity of air v ents.

The Harvill, Social Sciences, Kuiper Space Sciences, Life Sciences North and Robert L. Nugent buildings have all received such signs, said Julia Rosen, industrial hygienist with the UA Department of Risk Management and Safety.

"We put them up when people indoors are having trouble with smoake," she said.

The signs were posted at the beginning of the semester in response to student and worker complaints, Rosen said. Building workers are more prone to irritation than students, she said, because they are inside the building for longer periods.

"Some people are just very sensitive," she said.

Rosen said she understands some smokers will be angry with the signs and their request.

"It's a little hard on the smokers because they're already forced to leave the building," she said. "It's individual rights, but people are becoming more intolerant of smoke and I don't blame them."

Denise Allyn, a Department of Political Science administrative associate, said she has not noticed a difference in the Social Sciences building's air quality since the signs were posted.

Allyn said several people complained about the building's atmosphere, however.

The Social Sciences building is typical of the problem, because its air intakes are located just inside of the doorway where students often sit and smoke.

The signs have not yet deterred everyone from smoking near the building. Meagan Harrington, a pre-education freshman, sat smoking above the sign yesterday while waiting for class.

"I think it should be OK as long as we're outside," she said. "Right here, it's not going inside."

Fine arts freshman Richard Barinbaum also ignored the signs yesterday.

"Pretty much everyone sits here and smokes," he said. "I'm ignoring it (the sign) until someone tells me otherwise."