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With new year, LCC campus nearly smoke free

Sunday, January 4, 2009 4:43 PM PST

By The Daily News

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With one exception, the Lower Columbia College campus is now officially tobacco-free.

As of New Year’s Day, a new policy prohibits both smoking and use of smokeless tobacco everywhere except in privately owned vehicles in college parking lots.

The Associated Students of Lower Columbia College and other student organizations have lobbied for the policy over the past year, according to a college press release.

The policy is intended to promote good health among LCC students, employees and the community, according to ASLCC President Justin Rossetti.

The state banned smoking inside public buildings in 1985. In 2001, LCC restricted tobacco use to eight designated outdoor kiosks around the campus. The kiosks are being removed and will be recycled for other uses.

The college’s Leadership Team voted to implement the change for Winter Quarter 2009 following a campuswide review and a final two-week comment period. The proposal was endorsed by the student government council this past summer and by the LCC Student Services Council and Executive Council this fall.

Campus surveys of students and college employees conducted last spring also affirmed support for the change. Sixty-two percent of students surveyed said they would favor making LCC a tobacco-free campus. More college staff, 70 percent, supported the change.

LCC is the second college in Washington to prohibit use of tobacco on campus. Clark College in Vancouver made its main campus tobacco-free in the spring of 2006.

According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Federation, there are 260 colleges and universities nationwide that now have smoke-free campuses.

Rossetti said that the student groups submitting the proposal will provide tobacco cessation activities and education for students trying to reduce or eliminate their tobacco use. Student government has approved funding for those services.

College faculty and staff have similar services available through health insurance plans.

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mom of four wrote on Jan 4, 2009 3:21 AM:

" *Cheers* Now only the hospital! "

COE wrote on Jan 4, 2009 5:58 AM:

" Way to go, LCC! This area can boast very few smoke-free campuses. It's great to add you to the list. My compliments to the students and others on the gradual process of getting to this point. It sounds like there were lots of times when input was taken from smokers and non-smokers before decisions were made. This is a great show of leadership and a great way to start the new year. "

Northwest Flava wrote on Jan 4, 2009 9:36 AM:

" alright! Yeah! More rights taken away from those pesky smokers! They don't even deserve designated areas to segregate themselves from the rest of us normal, perfect non smoking citizens. Now they will know for sure that they are terrible people and should be condemned. We need clean air! So let's drive our hummers and jeep commanders down to a rally against tobacco use (in a town filled with mills that have been destroying our ecosystem for many years!) God bless America! "

Snewey wrote on Jan 4, 2009 11:43 AM:

" All tobacco users are suicidal perverts! They knowingly choose to destroy themselves by killing their heart and brain tissues and by self-inflicting cancers to their lungs, mouths, throats, larynxes, esophaguses, stomachs, pancreases, uteruses, cervixes, kidneys and bladders. They are definitely bad people; evil persons so to speak. "

Tom wrote on Jan 4, 2009 11:45 AM:

" SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!! "

DW wrote on Jan 4, 2009 11:48 AM:

" What an acheivment!! Maybe they should concentrate on being a learning institution instead of a social experiment. "

jamiefan2005 wrote on Jan 4, 2009 12:27 PM:

" If you really take the time to read the article you would realize that all of the clubs listed in this ban are the same 5 people. I recently graduated from LCC in Fall, and was president of one of the clubs on campus and our club was not even given the option to oppose. The survey taken last spring did not give the impression the campus should be smoke free, instead it said just the opposite. I hope the grounds people like to continually sweep the parking lot because it will now become one big ashtray. "

DW wrote on Jan 4, 2009 12:56 PM:

" Snewey, and of course your a freaking angel right!! You walk around with a halo on your head, eh? Do you wear a leather belt, or leather shoes?? Well then I think your a sick individual for wearing animal skins. Do you drive a car or truck? Then you are evil since you cause global warming. Do you eat meat?? I don't have to tell you how sick you are if you do that. Did you forget to plant a tree on arbor day?? Then your really evil for not carring about mother earf. And if you didn't take a bath today, then I think you are some kind dirty pigpen pervert. Be careful how you judge others before you look into the mirror. "

mom of four wrote on Jan 4, 2009 1:18 PM:

" jamiefan2005~ if you read the word campus you would know that the parking lot would follow that same rule. It is part of the capus not a private lot. If you get caught throwning a butt outside on the ground it is a fine through the police department! There ya go LPD fine them! "

jamiefan2005 wrote on Jan 4, 2009 2:13 PM:

" Mom of Four- obviously you have never been to LCC campus, because if you had you would realize that even campus security can't control the students that are smoking, the police won't show up just to ticket someone for throwing down a butt. If they do then they are really missusing taxpayers money, which is to fight crime and drugs, not smokers. "

k-town446 wrote on Jan 4, 2009 2:42 PM:

" Wow just think we have one of those "suicidal perverts" as the President of the United States....yeah bet he won't be smoking in the White House just like Bill Clinton didn't. Why do you think Hilary implemented the "no smoking ban"...hmmm "

DW wrote on Jan 4, 2009 3:39 PM:

" AAhh, k-town, I forgot about that. So according to some our President Elect is a suicidal pervert. Boy are we screwed now!!! "

tommy42 wrote on Jan 4, 2009 4:17 PM:

" It isn't like these people are smoking in the CLASSROOM, if they want to continue to pound nails in thier own coffins, so what. Here is the deal, LCC says No SMOKING ON CAMPUS, deal with it or find another school to attend. "

greenbean wrote on Jan 4, 2009 4:55 PM:

" The hospital went non-smoking a year (or two?) ago... The only place you can smoke around the hospital is on the sidewalk (public property). "

Snewey wrote on Jan 4, 2009 6:13 PM:

" tommy42: When I was a university student, fifty years ago, the university permitted students to smoke in class. Since then, times have changed; new information has come to light. However, some individuals such as DW are incapable of change. "

greenbean wrote on Jan 4, 2009 8:41 PM:

" When I was in college in the 80's, I had a history professor who puffed his pipe in his 2 hour afternoon history class, windows closed. I hated that class. "

kman wrote on Jan 5, 2009 11:27 AM:

" Last quarter I chewed in class. This ban definately isn't gonna stop me. If people want to still smoke or whatever on campus, they still will. The only thing different now is that they don't have a shelter to do it in. "

DW wrote on Jan 5, 2009 1:19 PM:

" Well Snewey, as long as you think President Elect Barack Hussein Obama is an evil, suicidal pervert, your O.k. in my book!! "

columbian wrote on Jan 5, 2009 5:29 PM:

" K-TOWN446 MR. BUSH only likes gun and bomb smoke.Also maybe he will now make tobacco a tool of mass destruction.by the way why not do away with tobacco.cant do that our goverment makes to much money with it.so keep track of your BUTT. "

columbian wrote on Jan 5, 2009 5:43 PM:

" I got kicked out of school for jerky snuff.teacher kept saying open your mouth let me see whats in your mouth.no way, your gone.but there again they outlawed gum remember.this kept you from learning.true so i became a politician. "

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