Help Carnegie Mellon’s campus become smoke-free by signing this petition! Over 500 colleges in the US have gone smoke-free, including the enormous campus of University of Michigan, giving hope that CMU’s tiny campus can do it too!

In 2006, CMU campus representatives voted on a proposal for a smoke-free campus. The Staff Council voted in support of this idea, but the student representatives (from the Student Senate and the Graduate Student Assembly) voted against it, leaving CMU with its current smoking policy of designated smoking areas (DSA).

Currently our small, crowded campus has 34 DSA. This includes 3 smoking areas next to the CMU track, sometimes exposing CMU athletes to second-hand smoke while they exercise. Other DSA are unfortunately placed at areas of high student traffic, like the entrance to the Pausch bridge. On top of this, it is not uncommon for smokers to disregard DSA completely. This suggests that the current system needs to be fixed.

Moving to a smoke-free campus is recommended by the American College Health Association (www.acha.org), who note that environmental tobacco smoke is a "Class A carcinogen" to which there is "no safe level of exposure."

Therefore, the motivation for this petition is to fight for everyone’s right to breathe clean, carcinogen-free air. It is NOT to infringe on rights but rather to protect rights. A campus survey in Spring 2009 found that about 89% of CMU’s undergrad students do NOT smoke on a regular basis. This suggests that about 9 out of 10 students have made the choice not to smoke, and therefore deserve the right to clean air. For that matter, everyone deserves this right.

This petition was prepared by a concerned member of the CMU community just like you. This is a grassroots effort. But it is a serious effort. Your signatures on this petition will make a compelling argument when we present them to your campus representatives. This will likely lead to another vote in the near future for a smoke-free campus, and this time your representatives will have heard your voice, and will hopefully vote appropriately.

By signing below, you indicate your support for the campus of Carnegie Mellon University to be completely free of cigarette smoke.

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