Anti-smoking group hopes to light a fire under CCSN

Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

Secondhand smoke is infiltrating the classrooms at the Community College of Southern Nevada, anti-tobacco advocates allege, and they want the college's administration to put a stop to it.

Community college students and staff from the West Charleston Campus have partnered with an anti-tobacco youth coalition to formally protest the lack of enforcement of the school's smoking policy at a rally scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

"On every main entrance there is a sign on the door that says no smoking within 100 feet of the building," Tiffany Tien, Community College High School senior and member of the XPOZ anti-tobacco youth coalition, said. "Not only is that rule ignored, it is not enforced."

Students often smoke directly in front of entranceways or even in front of air vents that deliver the smoke directly into classrooms, Tien said.

Nonsmoking advocates like Tien and CCSN chemistry laboratory monitor Wayne Veiock say the current signs are insufficient, designated smoking areas are unclear and security guards do nothing to stop smokers who are violating the policy.

Approximately 50 to 100 people plan to rally from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday with signs and collect signatures for a petition to better enforce the policy, said Maria Azzarelli, a health educator with the Clark County Health District, who oversees the XPOZ Coalition.

The rally in front of Building D at the campus is in conjunction with the national Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids' ninth annual Kick Butts Day, Azzarelli said, and will include information on smoking cessation programs.

Tobacco Free Kids honored the XPOZ Coalition, which includes more than 8,000 local teens, as youth advocate of the year in 2003.

Azzarelli, Tien and Veiock said they hope the rally will show CCSN's administration how serious the problem of secondhand smoke is on the campus. Tien and Veiock said administrators have not responded to their complaints about the smoke.

"We really do not have any other choice but to protest," Tien said. "I've told security, the administration ... I'm not sure if they are just not listening or what, but they are not doing anything about it."

Student Tina Fahey, a 23-year-old smoker, said she had never heard of the rule in question.

"No one has ever made me back up or put out my cigarette. I haven't even heard of anyone being told to back up from the building," she said.

Barrett Hyrem, a 20-year-old student who smokes outside the school buildings "all the time," also said he hadn't heard any complaints.

"But I mean, if they want us to back up, I don't think it's a big deal. We'll back up," he said.

He hasn't "smelled smoke in the classroom before, but you can smell smoke when you open the door sometimes -- the side doors when people are smoking out here," he said.

Veiock said he has endured numerous headaches from the smoke entering his chemistry laboratory through the ventilation system.

"The air intake is like a super strong vacuum cleaner, so if somebody is smoking within a certain distance, it will draw in that cigarette smoke," Veiock said.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) considers secondhand cigarette smoke to be a group A carcinogen, and they are piping it into my workplace."

In addition to enforcing the current policy, Veiock would like the administration to perform tests to make sure 100 feet is a sufficient distance to eliminate the problem.

Helen Clougherty, CCSN spokeswoman, said chief campus administrator Kathryn Jeffery is already looking into the ventilation problem and will most likely post additional signs around the vents and other areas around campus.

"It's something we are working on," Clougherty said.

Enforcing the policy, however, is problematic because the college's security guards are privately contracted, Clougherty said. Other than asking someone to move away from the building when smoking, they have no authority to enforce the request by writing a ticket or other sanction.

The college is currently looking at the feasibility of hiring its own security guards who would have that authority, Clougherty said.

In the meantime, Veiock said he hopes Wednesday's education rally will help lead to a "culture change" and stop people from sneaking just outside the college's doors for a cigarette break.

Veiock's colleague, English professor Shelley Fischer, agrees, noting that as an ex-smoker herself, she "cringes" when she sees students smoking at all but especially in doorways where she has to walk past their secondhand smoke.

"They have their whole lives ahead of them," Fischer said. "It's sad to see them trashing it on a cigarette."