Should Smoking Be Banned On College Campus Essay

Dylan King

Professor Hom

English Writing 300

1 November 2014

Argument Paper

The Smoking Gun Smoking in colleges has become a very controversial topic. Because smoking has proven to be bad for you and your health and it becoming more and more socially incorrect, many colleges have started to ban smoking on campus, however smoking is not illegal. In fact as of October 2014 there are over 1,477 college campuses that are completely smoke free (“Smokefree and Tobacco-Free U.S. and Tribal Colleges and Universities”). This begs the question of should smoking be banned not only in public places in colleges but private as well? I believe that smoking should be banned on college campuses because it affects the health of non-smokers as well as smokers,

“Approximately 20 percent of students begin smoking in college and another 50 percent intensify their smoking behavior” (“Smoking on College & University Campuses”). This shows greatly people are influenced at this time and the dangers of having a college campus where it is acceptable to smoke. If smokers don’t have an easily accessible place to smoke then they will be a lot less likely smoke especially since one of the most common types of smoking in college is social smoking. Social smoking is often thought of as not dangerous since it usually involves the smoker only smoking a few cigarettes in a day then they might not do it for a couple days or even weeks after. The dangers of this is people often aren’t aware of how easily they can become addicted and that they can actually become addicted within seconds of taking just one puff of a cigarette (“Social Smoking”). These smoking bans could turn out to be not just beneficial for students but for teachers as well, actually helping “to nudge more campus workers to snuff out the habit” (Stansbury). Along with the reduction of the pollution of the student’s bodies from smoking it will also help reduce the pollution on college