Adam Langbehn

Opinion

Dear Editor,

I read the article in this week’s “Bengal” (9/11) and wanted to respond negatively to the current smoking policy.

My first thought is towards the inclusion of e-cigarettes in the ban. I don’t see any reason why they would be included since they are the physical representation of a smoker’s compromise to secondhand smoke. Some genius took people’s offense at secondhand smoke and created a device that eliminates it while still allowing smokers their freedom.

The article states that they were discussed and included in the ban in order to “avoid time consuming accidental false reports.”

This line directly leads to my second thought on the ban. With the policy in place, are people supposed to report smokers to Public Safety? Is Public Safety supposed to respond to these calls? If so, how did that pass any common sense criteria for constructing this policy? A normal cigarette is smoked in less than five minutes. Are you really expecting Public Safety to respond in that amount of time for something that isn’t an emergency?

I thought the policy would be closer to “Public Safety will stop and cite you if they see you smoking on campus.” I don’t see how any other implementation could be more time/cost efficient.

Adam Langbehn is a graduate student in Nuclear Engineering