This week I read that The Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District has decided to ban the use of electronic cigarettes on its campuses. As a former smoker, I am well aware that my dirty-little habit is disgusting and harmful and an inconvenience to anyone who does not enjoy a stogie every now and then. Furthermore, I agree that smokers should not be allowed to fill the room with smoke and instead should step outside.
However, this new decision by the LACCD, which will affect WLAC students and staffers who enjoy a smoke break in between classes, is a horrible example of what a frightened society we are becoming. This board is claiming that the ban on e-cigarettes is to protect the young people from the “growing epidemic” that are e-cigarettes and the public health crisis that they have created. The truth is that e-cigarettes are not an epidemic, nor a public-health crisis. There is not enough evidence to determine that these vaporbased smokes are detrimental to one’s health, or that they are not harmful. Second, describing the use of e-cigarettes as a health crisis is irresponsible, offensive and a fear tactic. The spread of AIDS and HIV is a health crisis. The use of e-cigarettes is an alternative to the harmful and detrimental activity of smoking. Nowhere near a health crisis.
Board Vice President and the author of the policy change Scott Svonkin is labeling e-cigarettes as harmful but failed to produce any evidence. Svonkin has been committed to the field of education for years and his track record speaks for itself. He has also been committed to advocating for the public’s health, which is without a doubt admirable and necessary. However, having a strong background and knowledge in the fields of education and health, it is absurd and confusing that he would label e-cigarettes as a health hazard without producing proof. I am not a doctor and neither is he so it is safe to say that our opinion on the topic is based on nothing more than our own biases.
If Svonkin doesn’t want smokers on the district’s campuses, that is fine. Today it is popular to bully the smoking crowd. They have already been kicked out of the diners and bars and asked to stand 20 feet from any working door or window. And for some people, even that isn’t enough. However, e-cigarettes are new and their effects still unknown as accurately as the effects of smoking real cigarettes. So rather than hiding behind the alleged health concerns regarding e-cigarettes, Svonkin and the board should just say they don’t want people smoking e-cigarettes on campus: period.
I’m sending the same message to the UC system, which also imposed a similar ban. It is sad that we have become so afraid of hypothetical scenarios that we are beginning to alter our reality. We will all have different opinions on the effects of e-cigarettes and the vapor they release. I do not agree that they are harmful; not yet at least, since I have not seen convincing proof. Svonkin and the board, without producing a shred of proof, went ahead and banned an activity that some of the people they serve, enjoy. I would be interested in knowing how many of the nonsmokers in the district’s nine campuses have complained about the e-cigarette crowd.
