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Politics & Government

UC Campuses To Ban Smoking

All University of California campuses will become a no-smoking zone over the next two years. Loma Linda has already declared itself a no-smoking zone.

The University of California is banning cigarettes and all other tobacco products from its campuses over the next two years, in a move to both protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from developing the bad habit.

Students and staff alike will be prohibited from smoking anywhere on a UC campus - including outdoor spaces, parking lots and private residences. There won't be any designated smoking areas.

In 2008, the city of Loma Linda was one of the first cities in California to ban smoking within its city limits, although not on private property. The UC ban is more encompassing, but the sentiment is the same.

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Although, Loma Linda city officials agree that it is more of a statement than a law of enforcement, because the law is not regulated by the sheriffs that patrol the city limits.

California has some of the most stringent antismoking laws in the country, and has among the lowest rates of smoking. About 12 percent of Californians smoke, compared with 19.6 percent of people nationwide, according to state and national public health reports.

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The main impetus for the policy is to reduce people's exposure to secondhand smoke, UC officials said. But a major benefit, they hope, will be an overall reduction in smoking among those who work or study on the campuses.

"Our young students who come here as freshmen, who don't smoke but come to college and start experimenting, maybe they won't choose to smoke now. That would be a huge gain," Trish Ratto, manager of UC Berkeley's Health Matters wellness program and a member of the committee that is developing the UC-wide smoking ban told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Smoking has been forbidden at the UC medical centers, since November, and at least seven state university or community college campuses outlaw smoking.

The policy change was revealed this week in a letter from the UC President Mark Yudof to campus leaders. Details such as the exact date that the policy will take effect and how it will be enforced are still not known. Ratto said she expects UC Berkeley and other campuses to beef up programs to help staff and students stop smoking.

"This is a very important milestone in California," said Colleen Stevens, chief of the tobacco control branch of the California Public Health Department. "In other states, most young people start smoking in their teens, but in California, that start date is getting older. This policy will help protect the next generation from suffering the horrible impacts of tobacco."

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