A Deadly Education

T. Leigh Maxwell, a student at Clayton State University (CSU), wrote a very thorough, thought-provoking essay on the effects of secondhand smoke in March 2010.  She emphasizes the fact that Clayton State along with many other institutions of higher learning has ignored this issue and the statistics and factual information presented was impressive.  Ms. Maxwell points outs that although CSU does have a smoking ban policy, it is woefully insufficient and does not protect the health and human rights of non-smokers navigating from building to building on campus. In fact, the essay contains quotes from various reports, both governmental and private research, that imply that the toxins in exhaled smoke are extremely harmful, not only to the smoker, but to the innocent non-smoker and raise the risk of contracting any manner of disease that can ultimately lead to death.

She is careful to offer the opposing point of view, but quickly discounts their interpretation of a harmless nature secondhand smoke with information from a reliable and respected source.  By listing Georgia as a state that bans smoking in all restaurants and government buildings, she supports the statement, “Consequently, it is hard to understand why Georgia’s state universities lag behind on the issue of total smoking bands.”

Most agree that smoking is a nasty, self-destructive habit and with the information on the negative effects one does wonder why a person would make the choice to continue.  Granted, smokers have civil and social rights, but non-smokers have a right to a smoke-free environment and to object when that right is violated.  The government is expected to generate legislative issues that affect and protect the majority of its citizens.  Issues that involve the possibility of harm or eventual death deserves attention and the intervention of our elected officials; at minimum a vote by the people and in Ms. Maxwell’s case the student body of CSU.