Tobacco-free policies are being pushed for California college campuses

[Vocalek]

ACSH Elizabeth Whelen wrote today about this issue:
Conflating ‘tobacco’ and smoking harms public health, even at UCLA - ACSH

Unfortunately, this has been going on for a while, at several different campuses across the company.
Examples:
Montana State University Student Health Service - Tobacco Free MSU
National Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative
Danville Area Community College | Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative
Healthy CUNY and NYC DOHMH Tobacco Free Campus Initiative - Healthy CUNY - CUNY


CASAA's treasurer, Karen Carey, tracked down the source of this epidemic. Thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the demonization of all low-risk tobacco products and of e-cigarettes: Specifically, the FDA and the CDC. Your tax dollars at work.

Obama Administration Backs Smoke-Free College Campus Initiative | InTheCapital

According to Koh, the point of the campaign is to give students a better life. ”We are witnessing a public health evolution to make smoking history and protect people from tobacco dependence so that they have a fighting chance to enjoy their full potential for health,” he said in a statement. “Implementing this initiative will bring us closer to a world where tobacco-related illness is uncommon and lung cancer — the leading cause of cancer death in the country — is rare.”

Note particularly in the quoted paragraph above the substituion of the word "tobacco-" for "smoking-". Illneses such as lung cancer are not caused by tobacco. They are caused by smoking. Transferring the blame to all tobacco products is like stating that beverages cause liver damage, instead of specifying alcoholic beverages.

But the anti-THR prohibitionists have decided that getting rid of smoking isn't enough for them. They hate the tobacco industry. Their goal isn't (just) to end smoking. They want to put tobacco companies out of business, regardless of the relative risks of their product. Thus, even though many of them (perhaps most) know full-well that smokeless products are very low-risk, they pretend that all tobacco products are equally hazardous. Because e-cigarettes can deliver nicotine and ease the suffering of those that quit smoking tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes have to go, too. All nicotine products are inherently evil, except for the ones produced by the pharmaceutical industry.

Here is a description of the program implementation.

http://www.hhs.gov/ash/initiatives/tobacco/tobaccoprogress2012.pdf

HHS Establishes a Tobacco-Free Campus

In July 2011, HHS expanded its existing smoke-free policy to protect the health of its employees, contractors, and visitors by prohibiting the use of any tobacco products at all of its facilities under direct HHS control—within buildings as well as in outdoor spaces, parking lots, private vehicles on the premises, and government vehicles—regardless of location. The tobacco-free policy covers cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, and all other tobacco combustible and noncombustible products. As a key action step of the HHS
Strategic Action Plan, this policy projects a positive, pro-health message and is intended to encourage similar policies in all workplaces.

HHS Launches Initiative to Support the Adoption of Tobacco-Free Policies by Colleges and UniversitiesIn 2011, HHS created its Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative to promote and support the adoption and implementation of tobacco-free policies at universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning across the United States. Advertising, marketing, and promotion of tobacco products have been strategically designed by the tobacco industry to attract young people. HHS has enlisted the participation of leaders at academic institutions with tobacco- or smoke-free campus policies to counter these efforts. Supported by HHS, these academic champions—themselves leading by example—planned multiple events for 2012, including education and training sessions at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health to take the tobacco-free academia message to their peers and prepare public health advocates and others to effectively promote tobacco- or smoke-free campus policies across the nation. Prior to the launch of this initiative, approximately 775 colleges and universities had implemented 100% smoke-free campus policies (American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, 2012). Collectively, these institutions are accelerating the momentum for increasing the number of tobacco- and smoke-free campuses and the number of students, faculty, and staff covered nationwide. Also of note, the City University of New York (CUNY) garnered widespread attention in early 2011 when it adopted a smoke-free campus policy that applies to almost half a million students and more than 20,000 faculty across CUNY’s 23 campuses (City University of New York, 2011). Their comprehensive policy takes effect in September 2012.

Also, funds received from CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program have helped a number of academic institutions develop comprehensive tobacco-and smoke-free policies, including seven community colleges in Chicago, eight community colleges in St. Louis, and the CUNY system.

And then there is this:
https://nctoh.confex.com/nctoh/2012/webprogram/Paper1816.html

 

[DC2]

What is there to say? More of the same old, same old.

I guess none of these people own mirrors.
And if they do, they must not ever look into them.

I wish I had the money and connections to do an anti-ANTZ commercial.
Sigh....

 

[Vocalek]

Dr. Siegel wrote about this topic today:

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/11/department-of-health-and-human-services.html