Smoke free at NIC

Beginning July 1, the use of all tobacco products will be prohibited on the community college campus.

Students, employees and visitors will not be allowed to smoke cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, electronic cigarettes, pipes or hookahs. The use of smokeless tobacco products – dip, chew, snuff, snu – will also be prohibited. Well known cigarettes are Dunhill cigarettes and Gauloises cigarettes.

“This is not a policy that’s been adopted by the board (of trustees),” said John Martin, the college’s vice president for community relations.

The college’s administration will begin regulating tobacco usage based on a guideline approved this spring by NIC’s various constituent groups representing students, staff and faculty.

The initiative will be reviewed in six months, and again at the end of the year.

“Then we’ll decide at that time whether we should make it a full college policy,” Martin said.

The call for a tobacco free campus was initiated last fall by student government leaders.

“One of the main reasons was, we were afraid of the health concerns. We truly want this to be a healthy campus,” said Nick Dimico, vice president of the Associated Students of North Idaho College (ASNIC.) “We want to protect our students.”

The goal, Dimico said, is to provide other, healthier options to tobacco-users.

ASNIC will begin offering a cessation program in September.

Dimico said there are many tobacco-users on campus, and many non-smokers. He expects there will be some push back, but believes the initiative will be a success.

The guideline states that smoking, tobacco use and tobacco sales will not be allowed on NIC owned, operated or leased properties including the student residence hall, the NIC beach front, parking lots, walkways, sidewalks, sports venues, and college-owned and private vehicles parked or operated on college property.

The sale and free distribution of tobacco products, the acceptance of money or gifts from tobacco companies, and tobacco advertisements in college-sponsored publications will also be prohibited.

The first year of the tobacco-free protocol will be largely educational rather than punitive, although the guideline does include enforcement measures.

It states that the college “reserves the right to initiate disciplinary procedures against any individual found to be in continuous violation of this guideline.”

“We’re working on a communication plan, and a plan for signage,” Martin said.

The guideline calls for signs at all college entrances and drives on the main campus in downtown Coeur d’Alene and at all NIC outreach facilities. Employees and students will be advised of the college’s tobacco-free status during orientation and during the hiring process.

Violators will initially receive warnings, or “courtesy tickets,” issued by student leaders, administrators, staff and college security. They will also be given educational materials.

“We’ll do our best to help people with smoking cessation programs,” Martin said. “This ties in with our wellness plan.”

Repeat offenders, or those who fail to comply after being warned, risk disciplinary action by the dean of students or the director of human resources, depending upon the offender’s campus status.

Visitors and non-employees who disregard the tobacco-free guideline, after being “politely informed” and “provided with information explaining the guideline in a supportive and educational manner,” may be issued a warning or escorted off campus by college security.

Certain activities may be exempt from the tobacco-free guideline – cultural activities by American Indians that are accordance with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and dramatic performances where “smoking is integral to artistic content.”

Prior to promoting the tobacco-free measure, Dimico said the students researched how other colleges and universities were handling similar issues.

Going tobacco and smoke-free is a growing trend on college and university campuses throughout the United States.

The American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation has a list of 500 campuses, that as of April, are 100 percent smoke-free.

Boise State University and the College of Southern Idaho ban smoking on campus.

“We don’t want to tell people that they have to quit smoking. We just don’t want them to do it here,” Dimico said.

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Electronic cigarettes and vaping

Electronic cigarettes are battery powered drug delivery machines that allow a consumer to breathe in a high dose nicotine aerosol. (See previous article “Electronic cigarettes, nicotine and antifreeze?” with research source citations in the comments section at Examiner.com/Roanoke Longevity Examiner.) No tobacco is used in the plastic machine cartridges, just pure nicotine in an artificially flavored liquid. Many scary questions have arisen about e-cigs:

Just how much nicotine gets in your brain when you vape one cartridge? Without extensive animal testing this question is not answerable. Extensive animal testing has not been done on e-cigs. The amount of nicotine that you take in from e-cigs will depend on how many cartridges you suck on, how deeply you inhale, how often you partake, and to some extent, how much money you have to buy replacement cartridges. Manufacturers may make claims about the actual dose received but without pharmacological and physiological testing, the answers don’t have meaning.

Are e-cigs more addictive than tobacco cigarettes? Again, no one knows yet. The product is too new, and too few people have used it to date. A full blown epidemiology study is required.

Can e-cigs make you sick? Electronic cigarettes use nicotine extracted with petroleum-based chemicals from tobacco leaves and, as such, are artificially flavored. Nicotine is deadly when blood levels reach about 60 mg in a 150 pound male. Quick smoking of sixty tobacco cigarettes would be required to reach this level. One Roanoker, Gus T. Castros, flatlined from a heart attack after he smoked 80 cigarettes over seven and a half hours. He had accidentally reached the 60 mg toxic dose plus some. When nicotine is inhaled, it inhibits blood flow to the skin which is one reason why smokers don’t heal well after surgery or from wounds and why smokers develop loads of wrinkles. Also when nicotine is inhaled, it is converted to amino ketones which can cause kidney damage.

The most frightening aspect of electronic cigarettes is that consumers who do not seek out data and who do not think critically might be convinced by the old hackneyed ad line: “This is Safe!” This same line was shouted by physicians in the 1950′s about tobacco cigarettes before the data was in and the truth was known–decades and millions of deaths and inpatients later. We just don’t know yet, but if you want to be one of the first poor guinea pigs who reveals the dangers and illnesses associated with e-cigs feel free. Vaping is your right.

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