Banning smoking near Brown campus buildings is ill-advised because such a ban does not advance public health or change personal incentives in any meaningful way.
Using current data on the issue, it is almost impossible to authoritatively prove that secondhand smoke in open, outdoor environments is seriously harmful. Studies on outdoor tobacco smoke have shown that particle exposure due to smoking is incredibly localized and can only match indoor smoking levels if an individual stands two feet away from a smoker. And once one moves more than two meters from a smoker, one experiences levels of particle exposure that are incredibly close to clean, normal air. Due to these figures, and the fact that most students will only ever pass by smokers near campus buildings for a few short seconds of their day anyway, I find it irrational to contend that a ban on smoking near public buildings would seriously advance Brown's public health.
Furthermore, perhaps advocates of banning smoking near University buildings want to do so because they hope that tobacco users will be discouraged from continuing their unhealthy habit. That is, to a certain extent, a noble goal. But I seriously doubt that many smokers will be dissuaded from their ways by a policy that requires them to move just a few feet away. And these students, who would maintain their habit in the face of such a ban, will only go on to fill Brown's greens, quads and courtyards after they are pushed from the steps of Faunce House, the porches of Wriston Quadrangle and the patio of the Sciences Library.
Lastly, I suspect that most Brown students would like tobacco use to be lower at Brown than it is today. Some of them probably wish so because of a well-founded concern for their friends and those around them. But some of them, I believe, oppose smoking for more self-centered reasons. To these students, smoking is distasteful and unpleasant to see or smell, and they advocate the above-mentioned ban because it would allow them to further divorce their lives from such a dirty habit. To these anti-smokers, I have this to say: Smelling something disagreeable for a few short seconds, or seeing something disagreeable a few times a day is not cause enough for a campus-wide policy that orders people to live their lives as you wish.
