I can’t help but wonder about the new smoking ban put in place on the Creighton campus at the end of this school year.

Smoking bans have been placed all over the country and, just recently, in our city’s restaurants and bars (where food is served). Most anyone will say that the reason a smoking ban is put in place is to protect the health of the individuals who frequent those establishments. Seems like a noble cause.

So I decided to get some feedback from students both for and against the smoking ban here at Creighton.

Those in favor of the ban of course cited the health issue as to why it must be placed here. I then asked them how many people they thought died from second hand smoke a year in the USA. The answers: 5000; 10,000; 25,000 (one individual went as far as to say 120,000!). Their justification for these numbers? They were just going off the information that they had seen on a Web site, in a newspaper or in a pamphlet somewhere; some just gave an outright guess.

A few years ago, the Coalition for a Smoke-Free City ran a full page ad in the New York Times about the effects of secondhand smoke (or ETS) stating that the No. 1 killer in the American workplace was secondhand smoke. They also would have you believe the death toll from secondhand smoke was in the thousands.

The real death toll: 0-15, maybe.

At least those are the estimates given by Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health (www.acsh.org). Dr. Whelan, who is no friend of smokers, went on to say that any attempt by an anti-smoking interest group to place numbers on secondhand smoke is pure hyperbole and lacks any scientific basis. She says that it would be better to present smoking bans based on the facts of secondhand smoking. Those facts are simple: it can cause eye and nose irritation as well as aggravate pre-existing asthma in enclosed areas, not outside.

Anyone who is in favor of the outdoor smoking ban often says that another reason for the ban is because they just plain don’t like walking around smokers. Well I don’t like Ugg Boots. I think they are hideous and they offend my eyes. Let’s get rid of them. The deep-fried food that is served to us on a regular basis, surely that is no good, we must get rid of that too! Those elevators that prevent us from walking up and down stairs and getting proper exercise, how dare they make their presence in our university!

See how ridiculous that sounds?

Now if Creighton wanted to enforce the smoking regulations that are already in place, I am totally fine with that. I will gladly move 15 feet away from a building to enjoy myself, but it’s a little difficult when most ashtrays are directly outside of buildings on campus.

As far as this smoking ban concerns me, it is probably just a little overkill. Soon next year, I predict record traffic jams on 24th Street as cars will have much trouble moving around Creighton smokers, teachers and students alike who are smoking at the only place available to them.

Man this column has really taken it out of me. I need a smoke.