Clemson’s tobacco ban

The world would be a better place if no one smoked or chewed tobacco. And Clemson University officials are acting sensibly, we think, in trying to discourage tobacco use on campus. Nonetheless, smoking remains a legal indulgence, and students over 18 who choose to smoke should have a place where they legally can do so. Clemson announced this month that it plans to ban all tobacco products both indoors and outdoors on campus within two years. Clemson officials said they are bringing together students, professors and administrators to write a tobacco-free policy and put the plans in place by 2014.

Clemson wouldn’t be the only tobacco-free campus in the state but it would be by far the largest. Charleston Southern University, Lander University and the University of South Carolina Upstate have campus-wide smoking tobacco bans, as do an estimated 600 colleges and universities across the nation. Surveys indicate that about 12 percent of Clemson students smoke on campus. About the same number of employees are likely smokers, too. Smoking already is banned in all Clemson buildings.

The tobacco ban, however, would extend to all areas of the campus, including sports facilities and areas where students and alumni gather to tailgate before games. Alumni and visitors would be subject to the ban as well. Again, we understand that preventing young people from taking up the tobacco habit or convincing them to quit is a worthy goal. And Clemson officials said programs would be instituted to aid students in quitting, which is a good idea. We have enthusiastically supported efforts to make public buildings in Rock Hill and other areas of York County smoke-free, including outdoor sports venues.

But we also have recognized an individual’s right to light up in his or her car, home, other personal property and, essentially, areas in which other people are not affected by the second-hand smoke. Hundreds of colleges and universities apparently have successfully banned tobacco use. Perhaps students at Clemson could find places to smoke off campus easily enough if tobacco is banned on campus. But we wouldn’t find it unreasonable to establish at least one designated smoking area on campus to allow students to smoke or chew tobacco if they choose. An absolute prohibition looks like an invitation to find ways to break the rules.

A spokesman at the University of Arkansas, which has a tobacco ban, said the rule “probably is abided by about as much as the no-drinking policy is abided by.” Which probably means not always. Clemson needs to institute rules with which students and employees will voluntarily comply. And university officials need to take into account the probability that some will smoke or chew tobacco despite the ban. Until the U.S. decides to make tobacco a controlled substance whose use is entirely regulated by the government, allowing its use while also working to protect people from being unwillingly subjected to second-hand smoke will be a balancing act. We need to find ways to prevent young people from becoming addicted to tobacco but outright prohibition rarely works 100 percent of the time.