Substance-Free LPC, a group of Las Positas College students is trying to make LPC smoke free. The group is currently petitioning for the college to adopt a smoke-free campus. LPC student Banoo Khani is sending requests to various LPC clubs to support the petition.
“LPC’s smoking policy is out of step with completely smoke-free UC and CSU campuses across the state,” Khani stated in an email to LPC’s Journalism Club, “and the Surgeon General has concluded there’s no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke has thousands of chemicals, and 250 of these chemicals are known toxins while 69 cause cancer!”
In California all four year public state schools (UC and State) are 100% tobacco and smoke free. In 2018 only 46% of the Community Colleges are tobacco and smoke free. In 2016 the California Assembly in bill AB 1594 attempted to ban smoking and tobacco on Community College campus by 2018, but the bill was watered down in committee to only allow Community Colleges to ban tobacco and smoking.
Currently the Chabot-Las Positas College District allows tobacco and smoking within designated smoking areas and is prohibited within 20 feet of a main exit, entrance or operable window and any campus building. Both Chabot and LPC have designated smoking areas in parking lots.
A review of other local community colleges shows that Ohlone, San Joaquin Delta College Diablo Valley, Evergreen College, Berkeley College, Laney and Merritt prohibit smoking anywhere on campus.
The City College of San Francisco, Mission College, DeAnza College, College of San Mateo, Alameda, Skyline, Los Medanos and Canada College all allow smoking in some areas, typically parking lots.
California already restricts tobacco and tobacco products including e-cigarettes and vaping items to those 21 years old and older. About half of the students at LPC are under age 21, so the ban will only affect those students over age 21. In California about 11% of the adult population smokes.
Khani is asking that students and staff members sign the petition.
Alan Lewis is the photo editor of The Express. Follow him @alolewis1.
