Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: “Smoking Mad,” July 22, 2004
I would first like to offer a correction to your article: there is only one nurse on the committee. The rest of the group consists of a social marketer, a social worker, a University of Calgary administration representative, an AADAC representative, and some others, who as well, are not nurses. We are a diverse group intent on promoting the health of all students and workers on campus. Although, there are no current smokers on our team, there are ex-smokers, who know how addictive smoking is. There are also other students participating–although they are not completely active because of their summer jobs. However, they are constantly informed of the updates on this situation, and will return to their active roles on the sub-committee in the fall.
One of our objectives for the campus is to ease the dangers of second-hand smoke, which affects everyone, smokers and non-smokers alike. For ages we have known that SHS is bad for everyone, but it has become recently known that it is much more harmful than what was initially thought. For instance, 56 Albertans died from coronary heart disease in 1997 as a result of exposure to SHS.
People can still smoke- just keep it away from me. And according to your poll, I am not the only one to think this way.