Electronic cigarettes banned in campus buildings, residence halls
Electronic cigarettes are banned from use anywhere indoors on Central Michigan University’s campus this fall.
Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life, said e-cigarettes “will be treated as regular cigarettes.”
After studying e-cigarettes, which use a reservoir of nicotine laced water and a vaporizer to administer the substance, he said the university decided to ban their use within campus buildings because research has shown they give off noxious chemicals in the vapor expelled when smoked.
Because they are being treated the same as tobacco cigarettes, they too cannot be smoked within 25 feet of all campus buildings.
“Until the issue of e-cigarettes is resolved by the FDA,” Holtgreive said, “we will not be allowing them in the residence halls.”
He said these regulations are to keep a safe environment for students and those around them.
According to the Michigan Department of Community Health website, electronic cigarettes are “battery-powered devices that provide inhaled doses of nicotine by way of a vaporized solution.”
Throughout the state there are no formal laws regulating the use of e-cigarettes in public places, but the MDCH strongly recommends business owners should limit their use because they are “not a proven safe alternative” to real cigarettes.
Importation of e-cigarettes into the U.S. is currently banned as a result of an ongoing FDA investigation, according to the MDCH website.
Iron Mountain senior Andrew Casanova agrees with the new regulations put in place.
The Calkins Hall resident assistant said the Office of Residence Life made the right decision because not only are they still harmful to those around them, but also to the smoker himself.
“I feel that they were created to be a safe alternative,” Casanova said. “But they are not safe, the only safe alternative is to not smoke at all.”
