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University of Iowa campus to go tobacco-free

Apr. 7, 2015 12:16 pm, Updated: Apr. 7, 2015 2:10 pm
IOWA CITY - The University of Iowa will become a tobacco-free campus beginning Aug. 24 - the day fall classes are scheduled to start - adding electronic cigarettes and other items to the list of those already banned.
The new policy amends the university's existing smoke-free policy that prohibits cigarette and cigar smoking on campus by also banning the use of e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, snuff, and water pipes - also known as hookahs.
UI President Sally Mason announced the new policy in an email Tuesday to students, faculty, and staff. In her email, Mason said the policy aims to 'support a healthy campus culture and promote the health and well-being of all campus community members.”
A presidential working group has been researching the topic for months - asking for student, faculty, and staff input. Most groups - including those in athletics, facilities, health care, and student life - supported expanding the policy.
The president's working group also pored over 'a significant amount of research” documenting the health risks around tobacco use.
'And there is growing evidence of the potential health hazards around the use of e-cigarettes,” Mason said in the email.
E-cigarettes, in essence, are battery-operated vaporizers that mimic the feel of smoking tobacco. But, instead of cigarette smoke, they produce a mist generated from a solution that often includes nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide this summer whether to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, according to UI spokesman Tom Moore. The State of Iowa last summer began regulating e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, prohibiting their sale to minors.
The UI's move toward a tobacco-free campus mirrors initiatives on other campuses, including Big Ten institutions like Indiana University, University of Minnesota, and Ohio State University. Iowa's community colleges also include e-cigarettes in their tobacco-free policies, including Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.
National health organizations - like the American Heart Association - have supported those efforts. The American College Health Association has recommended colleges and universities include e-cigarettes, hookah products, and smokeless tobacco in prohibitions.
Officials with the American Lung Association have said leaving e-cigarettes and the like out of smoke-free policies 'may lead to the unintended consequence of increased use of smokeless tobacco products, which are being heavily marketed by the tobacco industry to young adults and others for use in settings where smoking is not allowed.”
The American Lung Association has said e-cigarettes are not safe alternatives to smoking, and it's 'very concerned about the potential health consequences of electronic cigarettes, as well as the unproven claims that they can be used to help smokers quit.”
Before the new UI tobacco-free policy, university housing rules already prohibited the use of e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in residence halls, Moore said.
UI's existing smoke-free policy became effective July 1, 2008, under the state's Smoke-Free Air Act, which was signed into law April 15, 2008. The university's smoking policy bans cigarette and cigar smoking in all university-owned buildings, its owned or leased vehicles, and on all UI grounds - including recreational facilities, athletic complexes, parking lots, and parking ramps. The new policy will apply to those same spaces, according to UI officials.
UI police can issue smoking citations under the policy if violators don't comply with requests to stop or continue to violate the rules after being warned. Fines are $50, according to Iowa law.
The Den in downtown Iowa City is one local smoke shop that sells e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and hookah products, and general manager Jeff Davis said e-cigarette sales have been on the rise. Buyers, he said, range in age from 18-year-olds wanting to try something new to middle-aged smokers looking for a way to quit.
Davis said he's not too worried about how the new UI policy will affect sales.
'It might dent us a little, but I think it's still going to be something they continue to buy,” he said. 'People are going to do what they want to do.”
Plus, Davis said, traditional cigarettes still are The Den's biggest sellers.
'(UI) has been a classic smoke-free campus for a while, and it's not stopping people that much,” he said.
UI police responded to 688 smoking calls in 2014, made 513 contacts, and wrote 56 tickets, according to the UI Department of Public Safety's most recent annual report. In 2012, UI police responded to fewer calls at 526 and made fewer contacts at 484 but issued 463 citations.
David Visin, interim assistant vice president and director of UI public safety, said enforcement campaigns have much higher numbers when they begin, before behavior changes.
Over the next five months, an implementation team will address issues associated with the new policy, including communicating the change to current and prospective students, faculty, staff, visitors, and patients to the UI campus.
A man uses an E-cigarette an electronic substitute in the form of a rod, slightly longer than a normal cigarette, in this illustration picture taken in Paris, March 5, 2013. A changeable filter contains a liquid with nicotine and propylene glycol. When the user inhales as he would when smoking, air flow is detected by a sensor and a microprocessor activates an atomizer which injects tiny droplets of the liquid into the flowing air, producing a vapor. The E cigarette is powered by a rechargeable battery. (REUTERS/Christian Hartmann)