Great American Smoke-out (with contact information)

Shelby Ebert SED 04

Why do I need to breathe your smoke?

While the University has designated areas in which smoking is allowed, we as bright young college students know that smoke does not stay in one place, but rather circulates. For example, when I lived in Warren Towers during my freshman year, we had 2 smoking rooms on our floor the entire floor would reek of smoke day in and day out. A little known fact to those living on floors with smoking rooms; it takes more than three hours to remove 95% of the smoke from one cigarette from a room once smoking has ended. If your smoking rooms are located next to your study lounge, as mine was, the smoke will travel and end up on the furniture, carpet, and walls that you, non-smokers use.

Secondhand smoke, which is what exists in those study lounges, and on the floors with smoking rooms, is a Class-A carcinogen, just like asbestos. Constant exposure to secondhand smoke will affect your health. Although it is easy to say that it will not happen to you, and that all secondhand smoking facts are myths, the fact remains that 53,000 nonsmokers die each year in the U.S. as a result of secondhand smoke. Therefore, if you want to continue telling yourself that it will not happen to you, remember that unless you can predict the future, it would be smarter to protect yourself now. Please help Boston University become more aware of the dangers of smoking, and the benefits of quitting before it’s too late by supporting smoke-free policies and, the American Cancer Society’s, Great American Smoke-Out on November 21, 2002.