EDITORIAL: EIT gets an 'A' for going smokefree | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

T HERE WILL be some students and probably some academics choking on the latest news from EIT.

Smoking will be banned from next year on the main campus and the tertiary institute's five regional learning centres.

The EIT says it is taking a "leadership role" in providing a healthy environment to work and learn.

But what of the rights of the individual? Smoking, after all, is not illegal in New Zealand and if you choose to smoke, should you not at least be allowed to light up outdoors where the greatest danger you pose, other than to your lungs, is to your general health from the cold, wet weather during the New Zealand winter.

Furthermore, should educational institutes be so prescriptive? One could argue that it is the place of higher education to enable an open, democratic environment in which free-thinking men and women can make their own decisions and these might include whether to consume tobacco on campus or not.

One could argue for that right but when it comes to tobacco, we choose not to.

Tobacco is a blight on our people and very many of us have been addicted to it at one time or another.

Many of us over the age of 35 recall suffering in workplaces where smoking indoors, puffing away in the face of non-smokers, was considered perfectly acceptable behaviour. If the non-smokers complained, why, they could step outside in the cold for some fresh air.

And those of a certain age will also recall taking airline flights as late as the mid-1980s on which the right to befoul the cabin with stinking tobacco smoke exhalation was enshrined as a right of the ticket purchaser.

So while the tobacco-afflicted might howl at this latest impending injustice on the EIT campus, really they had it as good as it gets for altogether too many years.

Furthermore, we think it is not just the role of educational institutes, public health organisations government departments and local bodies to show leadership on this public health issue.

Workplaces might consider telling employees that smoking on the premises, including carparks and outdoor green areas, is banned.

Go to the public footpath. And please don't flick your cigarette butt on the ground. That's littering.