Pro's and Con's of Colleges going tobacco free Essay

Pro's and Con's of Colleges going tobacco free - Essay Example The fundamental cause of this tremendous increase in the population of young smokers every year is social influence. Since children and young adults spend a considerable part of their day at schools and colleges, smoking peers and friends at schools and colleges are the prime source of influence for the non-smokers to take up smoking. This imparts the need for the concerned authorities to consider making the colleges tobacco free. The subject of this analysis is the pros and cons of colleges going tobacco free. Other than the fact that I smoke, I do not know a lot about my analysis. After thinking about it, I decided I wanted to know more about the pros and cons of colleges going tobacco free. In order to make informed decision and achieve favorable results, it is customary to evaluate the pros and cons of making the colleges tobacco free. This paper achieves this purpose and inculcates a better understanding of the usefulness of banning tobacco in the colleges. I think my main audie nce will be young college students. I really don’t know what my audience already knows about this topic being that I don’t know much about it myself just yet. I think the statistics I add will be convincing. Some of the questions that I intend to answer in my analysis include; How does this affect smokers rights? When did the policy begin? What colleges/states are mandating this policy? Causes and Effects of Tobacco Ban in Colleges Many colleges around the world have banned tobacco whereas many others are considering banning it. The College of DuPage (COD) is one such colleges that has recently imposed ban on smoking. The main reason why the COD went tobacco free on 6 August 2012 was the immense concern of the college about the health and safety of everybody who is associated with the college including the workers, the students, as well as the visitors. There is considerable amount of research that has found the health risks of both active and passive smoking. Another reason for making the college tobacco free is to cut down the costs associated with cleaning and maintenance of the college, damage caused by the possible outbreak of fire, costs of medical insurance, and the costs of students’ absenteeism (Martin). The pros of tobacco ban in college include improved health and safety of the students, staff, and visitors, cleanliness of the college’s environment, decreased tendency of non-smokers to start smoking, reduced students’ absenteeism, and reduced risk of fire outbreak whereas the cons of tobacco ban in college include absenteeism caused by students’ tendency to smoke off-campus, accuse of discrimination, and students’ and/or staff’s dissatisfaction. Pros of Tobacco Ban in the College There are numerous pros of tobacco ban in the college are numerous. They are discussed as follows: Improved Health and Safety Smoking is a potential risk of health both for the smokers and the non-smoking people around them. Smoking is known to be a cause of lung cancer, mouth cancer, and increases people’s tendency to do heavy smoking and subsequently start substance abuse. Cleanliness Tobacco ban causes the atmosphere to be carbon free thus providing the students, staff, and visitors with a fresh and clean air to breathe. Also, with the tobacco ban imposed, students cannot throw cigarette