Last week’s letter by Nick Hargis was heavily opinionated. With his snappy, irrational, judgments I couldn’t help but think that he was “on edge” and that he “needed” a cigarette.

He seemed to take a stance against both sides based on his annoyance with the bickering.

Even with his claim to neutrality on the validity of points, he still expresses his opinion of a preference to keep smoking on campus. Nevertheless, he does have part of a valid point.

We should save the debate for once the administration decides to act on the issue.

Until then, I will throw some statistics at you: Since 2002, roughly 19-20 percent of the population have claimed on national surveys that they are current smokers. It is a generally decreasing trend according to the national surveys.

With that said, surveys in cities that have completely banned smoking in public places have held surveys where the results may surprise some. The June 2007 study found that approximately 60 percent of smokers living in places that ban smoking in public support the ban.

A conclusion can be drawn statistically that if our administration were to enact a ban regarding smoking on campus, then roughly 2,190 students out of 28,790 would be against the ban while an overwhelmingly 26,600 students would be in favor of the ban.

Here are some statistics that may be depressing. We all know that the likelihood of smokers getting lung cancer is high: 1 in 6 for male smokers and 1 in 9 for female smokers. But did you know that 1 in 77 non-smokers contract lung cancer from second-hand smoke? Further, 6 out of 7 of those non-smokers will die within 5 years of contracting the disease. I told you this part would be depressing.

So here is some perspective for those that oppose a ban of smoking on campus: 303 friends, fellow classmates, and students that have never chosen to take a “puff” in their entire life will get the disease anyway with the contributing cause being second-hand smoke. Of them, 260 will die.

 The obvious rebut to my stance is that “my one cigarette won’t single-handedly kill.” Correct, but the accumulation of them will (i.e., you helped).

I hope those of you that oppose the ban will stop choosing your addiction to a drug over the 303 lives affected and the 260 lives taken. They are called “death sticks” for a reason.

Christopher Lyon
Senior, Business Management