This document discusses whether Florida Gulf Coast University should become a tobacco-free campus. It notes the health risks of smoking, including secondhand smoke, and environmental impacts. It also considers opposing views that smoking is a common habit and banning it would force students to quit. The author ultimately argues that a tobacco ban would improve health and the environment. As a compromise, the university could encourage electronic cigarettes as a less harmful alternative to allow smokers to still fulfill their habit on campus.

1. Smoke Free Frenzy
By: Sierra Coffers
ENC 1102 CRN# 10861
4/8/2013

2. • How can Florida Gulf Coast University become
a tobacco free campus without making
smokers feel unwelcome?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESo8sAt8A_
A

3. Although students on university campuses
have a right to smoke, Florida Gulf Coast
University should consider banning all smoking
on campus.

4. Smoking is dangerous and causes many health
problems as well as environmental setbacks

5. • According to the CDC, 19.0% of all adults
smoke cigarettes
• This number is very high and needs to be
brought down significantly

6. Opposing Viewpoints
Since so many people smoke, it shouldn’t be completely banned
from campuses
• It’s common for college students to smoke cigarettes and
banning them forces students to quit the habit

7. Opposing Viewpoints
It is a common habit of many people including
some FGCU staff, and they need to be able to
have a cigarette throughout the day
• Staff members spend long hours working and
shouldn’t have to leave campus in order to
smoke a cigarette

8. Personal Viewpoints
Second hand smoke is just as dangerous as smoking itself and
making the campus tobacco free will encourage better habits of
FGCU affiliates
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that,
“Secondhand smoke costs greater than $10 billion (i.e., health
care expenditures, morbidity, and mortality).”
• In the United States, smoking is responsible for one in five
deaths annually. 49,000 of these deaths are the result of
secondhand smoke exposure alone.

9. Personal Viewpoints
Smoking places an immediate threat to the environment and in time becomes toxic to
the earth
• Throwing away cigarettes has been linked to a high amount of very large forest
fires, killing off wildlife and vegetation.
• The toxic chemicals in cigarette butts are a threat to our aquatic ecosystems and
sea life.
• According to Tobacco Free California, “the production of cigarettes is very
damaging to the environment. It is estimated that one tree is consumed for every
300 cigarettes produced (that's one tree for every one and a half cartons).”

10. Personal Viewpoints
Smoking cigarettes is linked to academic failure and lack of achievement in
students
• According to the CDC, “31% of students with mostly A’s ever smoked
cigarettes and 74% of students with mostly D’s or F’s ever smoked
cigarettes.”
• Also, only two percent of students that smoked cigarettes on school
properties received the passing grade of a A.

11. Smoking has great
downfalls and causes more
harm than good. Banning
Cigarette use on campus
would increase FGCU’s
environment as well as the
health and wellness of the
school’s population.

12. Want More Information?
• Smoking and the environment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozqIfh3Pztg
• Secondhand Smoke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxjHlbq-3vE

13. Can We Agree on Something?
• It would make for a positive step in FGCU’s plan to, “go green.”
• It would help promote people to kick the habit
• It would greatly decrease the amount of cigarettes a smoker has daily
• It would provide FGCU with a cleaner and less hazardous campus

14. Conclusion
To help make FGCU a tobacco free campus
without singling out smokers, FGCU can better
promote the use of electric smoking devices

15. Electric smoking devices are odorless, flameless, and less
harmful than regular cigarettes. FGCU can encourage students to
purchase these devices or even supply them at the school
convenience store. The use of the electric cigarettes lets smokers
fulfill their habit and helps FGCU become closer to achieving a
tobacco free campus.

16. Works Cited
Barnes, Elvert. "01.SmokeFreeCampus.FRB.NW.WDC.10March201 3." Flickr. Yahoo, 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Touzet, Nadine. "Modern Life." Flickr. Yahoo, 12 july 2008. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
I s m a e l. "SMOKE." Flickr. Yahoo, 11 Mar. 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
MONeill311. "Designated Smoking Area- FGCU." Flickr. Yahoo, 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Garg, Kshitij. "Wanna Smoke?" Flickr. Yahoo, 22 march 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Sukle Advertising. "Wyoming Dept of Health Secondhand Smoke." Flickr. Yahoo, 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Redbrickpaper. "Struggling Student." Flickr. Yahoo, 31 Oct. 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.

17. Works Cited Cont.
Elycefeliz. "Dirty Snow and Cigarette Butts." Flickr. Yahoo, 28 Feb. 2010. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Bisht, Tilak. "Go Green." Flickr. Yahoo, 7 Aug. 2010. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
Germanss475. "A Healthy Alternative to Tobacco." Flickr. Yahoo, 1 Oct. 2012. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "Fast Facts." CDC 24/7: Saving Lives. Protecting People. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
California Department of Public Health. "Cigarette Butts Are Toxic Waste." Tobacco Free CA. Tobacco Free CA, 2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "Tobacco Use and Academic Achievement." CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2013. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.