It is unusual to find an opinion that runs against the grain at Hillsdale College, and rarer still to find one that does so coherently. Two weeks ago, however, I came across one in The Collegian, written by a brave woman named Jordyn Pair, and concisely titled “Stop smoking outside the library.” She made her case for respect, consideration, and health and criticized a practice that has dismayed me since my first day on this campus. Jordyn, I applaud you, and though we don’t know each other, we are now friends.
However, nature apparently abhors a step in the right direction, so senior Brendan Clarey ambled to the defense of asthma and throat cancer in the following week’s Collegian with an article titled, “Smoke-free spaces lead to safe spaces.” Strength rejoices in the challenge, I suppose. Now, to address the arguments point-by-point would serve only to highlight a cacophony of political platitudes, so I’ll skip to his conclusion instead. He writes, “If we push smokers away from the library because it makes us uncomfortable, we’re that much closer to pushing away our freedoms and the things that challenge us for the sake of our comfort — a mistake far more dangerous than secondhand smoke.”
For those of you who may not know, when one buys a pack of cigarettes, the box comes coated in warning labels mandated by the federal government.
They don’t read, “Surgeon general’s warning: Smoking may make those around you uncomfortable.”
They read, “Surgeon general’s warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.”
Comfort is not what’s on the line here. This is about toxic fumes (I’m not being hyperbolic here) that frequently waft through the most traversed path on campus, and a growing desire among Hillsdale’s students to pass without inhaling them. Anyone who argues otherwise is being ignorant and insensitive.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some interesting statistics that clarify the situation. From 2005 to 2009, secondhand smoke contributed to 170,000 deaths by heart disease. During the same period, secondhand smoke contributed to 36,500 deaths through lung cancer. The CDC estimated that 2,500,000 people have died from complications related to secondhand smoke in the last five decades. For these millions of people, proximity to cigarette smoking was far more than a matter of discomfort.
For Clarey to equate smoke-free zones to the so called “safe-spaces” in some universities is a gold medal-winning logical long jump. He says that when we ask to walk to lunch through unpolluted air, it is comparable to banning offensive speech and the “public exchange of ideas.” I resent that implication.
One of my original motivations for enrolling at Hillsdale was the promise of open debate and discussion; at no point, however, did I sign up for a public exchange of carcinogens.
Let’s start taking seriously the health of our fellow students.
Pearce Pomerleau is a junior studying economics.