Teddy Hall votes to keep on smoking
Teddy Hall voted against a blanket ban on smoking inside college in their JCR meeting last Sunday “The JCR was overwhelmingly in favour of this motion, voting that students should have the right to smoke in their own rooms,” said JCR Vice President Robin Fellerman. David Allen, a second-year at the college, told The Oxford Student: “I don’t smoke and, obviously, I don’t like the smell of smoke. But, at the moment, there are two sides of the b
ar, one for smokers and one for non-smokers, and I think this works really well.” The smoking rights group Forest welcome the JCR’s decision. A spokesman said, “We congratulate the students on coming up with a compromise and going against the forces of political correctness. If this system can work in St Edmund Hall then we hope other colleges will follow suit.
A spokeswoman for Action on Smoking and Health, an antismoking pressure group, said, “Although it’s important that students have a say in the running of the college they live and work in, I feel that this is a missed opportunity. “Indoors, where people are living, non-smokers have a right to be protected from passive smoking. I’m hoping that they will debate the issue again and with hindsight make another decision.
A study carried out by Action on Smoking and Health in March of this year found that non-smokers who are exposed to passive smoking in the home, have a 25 per cent increased risk of heart disease and lung cancer. Professor Konrad Jamrozik, formerly of Imperial College London, has estimated that domestic exposure to second hand smoke in the UK causes around 2,700 deaths in people aged 20-64 and a further 8,000 deaths a year among people aged 65 years or older.
Legislation banning smoking in all pubs and private members’ clubs in England is being introduced in summer 2007. Some universities, such as Bournemouth, have already voted to become smoke-free zones, and Oxford colleges will be forced to comply with the new laws when they come into force.
18th May 2006