Promoting a smoke free campus for UNM

Author: Donald Burge Presented to Staff Council

      WHEREAS the multiple dangers of smoking tobacco have been extensively documented; and

      WHEREAS there is an increasing volume of scientifically replicable data that very 
clearly demonstrates non-smokers are adversely affected by second-hand tobacco smoke, also 
called environmental tobacco smoke; and

      WHEREAS the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the National 
Cancer Institute cite second-hand smoke as a major factor in approximately 3,000 lung cancer 
deaths and approximately 35,000 heart disease deaths per year among non-smokers, as well as 
linking second-hand smoke to numerous other diseases including asthma, bronchitis and other 
cancers; and

      WHEREAS within the past two decades an increasing number of public and private 
organizations, including the University of New Mexico, have attempted to minimize the adverse 
effects of tobacco smoke to non-smokers by restricting the areas in which smoking may occur on 
the property of those organizations; and

      WHEREAS medical studies show that merely attempting to direct where smokers may smoke 
rather than dealing completely with the problem of tobacco smoke in public areas often has an 
insufficient effect in protecting non-smokers; and

      WHEREAS we find that those persons who choose to smoke do not possess any inherent 
personal or civil right to endanger the health and safety of any person who chooses not to 
smoke,

      THEREFORE be it resolved by the Staff Council that we call upon the Board of Regents and 
the University administration, as well as the Faculty Senate, the Graduate and Professional 
Students Association, and the Associated Students of UNM, to join with us in an open dialog 
Towards making the University of New Mexico a smoke free campus before the beginning of the 
2006-2007 academic year.

Copies of this resolution shall be sent to each member of the Board of Regents, President 
Louis Caldera and each of the University vice presidents; to the presidents of the Faculty 
Senate, the Graduate and Professional Students Association, the Associated Students of UNM, 
and the UNM Retiree Association; and to the director and president of the UNM Alumni 
Association within three days of passage.

Courtesy copies of this resolution are also to be sent within three days of passage to 
Governor Bill Richardson, Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish, New Mexico Senate Pro Tempore Ben 
Altamirano, New Mexico Senate Majority Leader Michael Sánchez, New Mexico Senate Minority 
Leader Stuart Ingle, New Mexico House Speaker Ben Luján, New Mexico House Majority Leader W. 
Ken Martínez, New Mexico House Minority Leader Ted Hobbs and to Alburquerque Mayor Martín 
Chávez.