The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

Current Issue:

Student group calls for campus smoking ban

Abstract:
Homewood is moving closer to becoming a smoke-free campus, thanks to the efforts of Hopkins Kicks Butts...

Displaying 1 - 4 of 4

The Individual

posted 10/31/09 @ 11:15 AM EST

Fact is, second hand smoke is not harmful. All studies result in no statistical significance. Now, whatever study wants to use those statistics to make unsubstantiated conclusions is fine.

It amazes me how much we're targeting smokers, yet in every class room around campus, one will find a few students per, who are so sick, they're sitting there inhaling their snot through their nasal passages. That is, of course, perfectly acceptable. So, while it's OK for you to sit in class and given everyone H1N1, it is, somehow, not fine for us smokers to sit in and smoke.

You're going to remove ashtrays around campus? OK, so get used to more cigarette butts on the sidewalks. This, of course, will only lead to phase two, which will be a total ban, because of the increased costs associated with picking up butts.

Just have the sand to say, if you're a smoker, don't come to our school.

Post a reply to this comment

Alex

posted 11/03/09 @ 4:20 PM EST

Originally posted by
The Individual
Fact is, second hand smoke is not harmful. All studies result in no statistical significance. Now, whatever study wants to use those statistics to make unsubstantiated conclusions is fine.

It amazes me how much we're targeting smokers, yet in every class room around campus, one will find a few students per, who are so sick, they're sitting there inhaling their snot through their nasal passages. That is, of course, perfectly acceptable. So, while it's OK for you to sit in class and given everyone H1N1, it is, somehow, not fine for us smokers to sit in and smoke.

You're going to remove ashtrays around campus? OK, so get used to more cigarette butts on the sidewalks. This, of course, will only lead to phase two, which will be a total ban, because of the increased costs associated with picking up butts.

Just have the sand to say, if you're a smoker, don't come to our school.

Smokers have no right to be butthurt. Smoking and the secondhand smoke that ensues are damaging to health and inconsiderate. And in case you haven't noticed, Hopkins doesn't encourage sick people to go to class. I've seen signs everywhere encouraging the opposite.

Post a reply to this comment

A Good Idea

posted 11/01/09 @ 10:03 AM EST

There's a libertarian saying that goes, "Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins." In this case, your right to smoke ends where my nose begins. Smokers have the right to smoke, but they don't have the right to do so in a place where other people going about their business have to go substantially out of their way to avoid the secondhand smoke. For example, outside the library doors...

Post a reply to this comment

L. Vargas

posted 11/02/09 @ 3:00 AM EST

Wish you'd have featured more objecting viewpoints, as I know there are some (ask me for my opinion if you're struggling to find people who oppose the ban!). Unfortunately, your choice to leave all contrasting arguments to the very end of article while front-loading with the views of Hopkins Kicks Butts and the supporting University transforms an article that could well have been a thoughtful discussion of an important issue into a fluff piece.

We understand the University and (surprise) an anti-smoking group support this ban, but there are many other actors on a campus than "administrators"-by day and a handful of letter-writing members of a student group. Try to do justice to this wide variety of positions by balancing out who you interview and whose opinions you write merely as source material and those who you assume as your own editorial slant.

Post a reply to this comment