UH-Manoa kicks butts

The University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus plans to toughen its anti-smoking policy starting Jan. 1 with a total ban on tobacco products and electronic cigarettes — a move that would make it the first tobacco-free college campus in the state.

School officials say the ban is aimed at creating a healthier campus. Smoking is already prohibited in buildings and most outdoor areas, including courtyards, "breezeways" and terraces, under the UH system’s smoking policy.

"It is now well understood that tobacco use in all forms is addictive, hazardous and costly to individuals and institutions," Lori Ideta, Manoa’s assistant vice chancellor and dean of students, said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. "The purpose of this policy is to promote and protect public health and reduce administrative costs associated with the burden placed on the university community related to smoking and other uses of tobacco on campus."

The ban will apply to students, faculty, staff and visitors.

The school’s plans come at a time when the city is expanding smoking bans on Oahu, including new laws that will prohibit lighting up at city beaches, parks and bus stops beginning Jan. 1. Statewide, smoking in enclosed or partially enclosed public areas and within 20 feet from entrances has been banned since 2006.

The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai‘i said Manoa’s tobacco ban "sends a clear message that the health and safety of the entire university community is important to protect," said Executive Director Jessica Yamauchi.

"As an educational institution, UH-Manoa can serve as a leader in educating a very large audience about the dangers of smoking along with secondhand smoke exposure," she said.

The move was prompted last spring by the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, Manoa’s student government representing 14,000 undergraduate students. The group’s senate passed a resolution last February calling for the school to "prohibit the use of any tobacco products on campus."

"This is definitely controversial because a lot of students smoke on campus, but it’s a huge issue that we felt needed to be discussed and addressed," said ASUH President Richard Mizusawa, adding that he often sees students smoking in nonsmoking areas on campus.

"It will affect smokers who will need to go off-campus to smoke, but I think it provides long-term benefits that will lead to a healthier and thriving campus," said Mizusawa, a senior majoring in communication and communicology.

The Manoa Faculty Senate voted to endorse the ASUH resolution by a 29-21 vote last year. The split vote hints at some of the disagreement over the issue. Faculty Senate Chairman David Ericson said some members felt there were more pressing health concerns on campus.

"While it is widely known that tobacco smoke in confined areas is a clear health hazard, some faculty believed that tobacco smoke should be banned in open, wind-diluted areas, too," he said. "Other faculty, however, believed that there are other more imminent and serious dangers on campus that students should focus on first, such as inattentive student bicyclists and unpredictable skateboarders who have clearly injured many students, faculty and staff with an immediacy that tobacco smokers could never wreak."

Ideta credited a combined effort for the tobacco ban, adding that student, faculty and community groups "have been working toward some iteration of a tobacco-free policy for the campus for years." The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai‘i served on a committee that helped spearhead the effort.

The student group’s resolution cited the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke and pointed to a 2006 surgeon general’s report which concluded there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

The American Lung Association says secondhand smoke causes disease and premature death in people who do not smoke, leading to an estimated 50,000 deaths each year. It contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, the lung association says.

UH-Manoa joins more than 1,100 college campuses that have enacted smoking bans, with 793 of the schools prohibiting all tobacco products like Manoa plans to, according to the national Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative. (Kapiolani Community College implemented a smoking ban this fall.)

The initiative was launched a year ago as a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American College Health Association and the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health and aims to eliminate tobacco use on all college campuses.

In Hawaii, 16.8 percent of adults smoke cigarettes, ranking the state as having the third-lowest rate in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 2 percent of adults here use smokeless tobacco.

Ideta said the university chose to include electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, in the ban — although they do not contain tobacco — because of potential adverse health effects for users and bystanders.

Electronic cigarettes are metal or plastic battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. Users get nicotine without the chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes, and manufacturers say they are a safe alternative to conventional cigarettes.

Last month, state Attorney General David Louie joined 39 other state attorneys general in urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate electronic cigarettes the same way it regulates tobacco products.

"Basically, these devices are not FDA-approved and research is now becoming available that indicates e-cigarettes can increase nicotine dependence and can cause other health complications," Ideta said.

As with Manoa’s existing smoking policy, the tobacco ban will rely on cooperation from users to comply. There will be no disciplinary consequences, Ideta said.

"The intent of this policy is to be educational rather than disciplinary," she said. "This policy relies on the thoughtfulness, consideration and cooperation of smokers and nonsmokers."