Oct. 1 marks the fifth anniversary of Minnesota’s smoke-free law, Freedom to Breathe. At the time, there were countless arguments that establishments would go out of business and that it would be impossible to enforce.  Recently, I learned that University of Minnesota students report the place that they are most exposed to secondhand smoke is on campus.

Our campus is being used as a personal ashtray for all the smokers in the area. You can’t smoke in public places, hospitals and even the light rail. So where are all these people going to go when they need a smoke? Most likely, it seems to be our campus. As students we should be worried about our health and our money because we are the ones inhaling the secondhand smoke and paying for all the cigarette butts to be cleaned up. Isn’t it time we got serious about the dozens of cancer-causing chemicals in secondhand smoke and joined the growing trend of campuses across the state and country and adopted a tobacco-free campus, inside and out.