 "Photo: Mitch Ramos / UCD Advocate")
It started quietly. Certain restaurants made smokers stand outside when having a cigarette. Slowly, office buildings and hotel lobbies and hospitals followed suit.
Now, in a policy that completed its goals on Oct. 31, the Anschutz medical campus is now tobacco-free, requiring all users to trek to the edge of the campus grounds in order to smoke or chew.
“It was probably necessary in terms of what we want to represent as a medical campus,” said Jenny Aalborg, professional research assistant at the School of Public Health. “There’s vast literature that secondhand smoke has harmful effects.”
Dr. Lori Crane, professor and chair at the school, agreed. “Virtually everyone has known it’s bad for them since at least the 70s,” she said. “It’s not news that it’s bad for you.”
The decision was given the nod by Dr. M. Roy Wilson, chancellor at UC Denver. The first stage commenced April 6, allowing a covered space in the Evergreen Parking Lot on campus for smokers to huddle into during their smoke breaks.
But on Oct. 31, even the “shack,” purposed for smoking, was shut down. And although the health effects of smoking are clear today, some were still unhappy with the change.
Kristie Fields, a facilities coordinator at the school, was one of the smokers affected by the policy change.
“A lot of my smoker friends are fit to be tied,” she said and laughed. “Mad as can be. We had our little smoking shack. We can’t even go there now; we can’t even get out of the weather.”
The official news release that was posted on the UCD website before the ban went into effect read, “One of our nation’s leading causes of disease and death will soon be completely banned from the entire Anschutz medical campus.”
According to Crane, smoking is the most harmful thing a person can do. “It’s horribly destructive to personal health.”
Even though the health aspect may be clear as day to many experts, there are some murkier areas the policy affects.
“Smoking isn’t illegal,” Aalborg pointed out. “We’re legislating behavior, essentially. That can be tricky.”
“Do I support it? Yes,” Aalborg said. “But not without recognizing we’re infringing on rights.”
It’s not only the employees that the policy affects. Everyone on campus at any time has to abide by these rules, including patients.
Aalborg isn’t the only one to voice mixed feelings.
“We have hospitals on campus,” Crane said. “If you can imagine you had a serious illness and then had to go through nicotine withdrawal…some people compare that to heroin withdrawal.”
That’s where the policy seems to strike a nerve with people on campus. Because some people use smoking to soothe frayed emotions and stressful situations, concerns have been raised that smokers who are dealing with a sick family member or friend won’t be able to calm down or de-stress.
Fields agrees. “I feel more for people who have children or family in the hospital.”
There are two sides to every coin, even a highly addictive, cancer-causing coin.
“I think they’re sort of infringing on individual rights. It should definitely be taken into consideration,” Aalborg said.
“I think it’s crossing a line,” Fields said. “What harm does it do to stand on the edge of a facility and smoke? Now people driving by see us hanging out on the sidewalk smoking, and maybe that gives a bad impression.”
Crane said, “I haven’t heard anyone be unhappy about it, but I would imagine that they are.”
Even with the moral dilemma and the few unhappy smokers, the general consensus on campus seems to be that the ban has done almost nothing.
“I’ve seen some signs up,” said Crane. “That’s all I’ve noticed.”
Even Fields, a smoker herself, agrees.
“I think, as a whole, it hasn’t done anything one way or the other,” she said. “It’s not good or bad either way.”
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