1st Paper Presentation

Smoking in Campus Area Should Be Strictly Prohibited by the College

Nowadays, there are many students smoke in campus area. Every time I am in campus, I see many smokers who smoke in my campus. Some of them are my classmates and they smoke at some spots in campus such as at canteen, in front of class, and other spots. Sometimes, I ask to myself, is this a campus? It is because I see the smoke of cigarette everywhere. It forces me inhale the smoke too although I do not want to it. As we all know, cigarette contains more than four thousand substances and two thousand of them have been declared that the impact is not good for our health. The smoke is very annoying. It disturbs other people in campus who do not smoke because it pollutes the air.

Surely, we all know that cigarette smoke pollutes the air in campus. It is very annoying when I come to campus in the morning and I hope that I get fresh air but suddenly my friends come with their cigarette. I think they steal my human right to get the fresh air since it is very difficult to get it nowdays. When the air in campus is polluted by cigarette smoke, I have a bad mood to study. It maybe happens to other students. For information, a place filled with cigarette smoke is a more dangerous place than pollution in a traffic jam. One of my friends feels like vomiting when she inhales the cigarette smoke. A study revealed that air pollution caused by cigarette smoke is ten times more than the pollution caused by diesel engines. One important thing is the smoke produced by a smoker, 15% inhaled by smokers (current smokers) itself, while 85% is inhaled by people around them (passive smokers). It is a crime, isn’t it?


Smoking is also a crime in campus for those who have asthma because the smoke is very annoying. Most of the smokers do not think about others. They do not think whether there are asthmatic people around them or not. It is a crime for asthmatic people, isn’t it? One study by Dahms et al in 1998 showed that people with asthma which are exposed to cigarette smoke for an hour, suffer damage to 20% for lung function. It is difficult to breath for asthmatic people when there is a lot of cigarette smoke around them. The asthmatic people come to their campus to get knowledge, not that annoying cigarette smoke. Asthma is not only caused by smoke cigarette but also smoking. Because of that, if you are an active smoker, it is possible for you to get asthma soon. Besides that negative effect, there is also a possibility for active smokers to start consuming drugs.

Smoking is a gateway to drug. Cigarettes are included in other addictive substances. Nicotine which is one component of cigarettes is a stimulant psychotropic substance. The fact is cigarettes are drugs, too. The difference is the cigarette legalized and drugs are forbidden. As we all know, someone who tried smoking usually be addictive because cigarettes are addictive which is difficult released under any circumstances. Smokers usually like to try something that produces a false pleasure. They are usually more easily tempted if someone offers drugs, alcohol, psychotropic, or other addictive substances. Because of that, smoking should be banned in all educational areas included in campus because campus is the place in which educated people are. Campus should be a good example for many people out there.

There is no advantage of smoking in campus area. Many people in campus, especially students, smoke because of their friends. Many of them feel pride of being a smoker. If you think that smoking can make you look cool, it does not work. Smoking in campus area does not make smokers look cool. You come to your campus to get much knowledge not to show your style. If you smoke in campus, it will annoy your friends who want to learn. Students who smoke just spend their parent’s money on many useless things. We just can get no advantages of smoking unless cigarette smokes and cigarette ashes.

Cigarette ashes which were placed haphazardly litter the campus. Certainly, the smokers do not bring an ashtray when they go campus. Most of them throw cigarette ash to everywhere. When they sit on the floor in front of the class, they will throw the cigarette ashes on the floor. It means, they not only pollute the air but also make the campus dirty. The smokers who litter the campus with the cigarette ashes have to remember that you are not the only one who uses that place. It is very annoying when I am going to sit on the floor but there are ashes on it. Although there are cleaning services in campus, you must not litter your campus. All of us must keep our campus clean because it is where we learn. If it is clean then we will learn in comfort. That is why the government regulation prohibits smoking in campus.

Smoking in campus area is prohibited by government regulation. There is a regulation that prohibits smoking in campus. According to section 22 Peraturan Pemerintah RI No. 19 Tahun 2003 Tentang Pengamanan Rokok Bagi Kesehatan, “Tempat umum, sarana kesehatan, tempat kerja dan tempat yang secara spesifik sebagai tempat proses belajar mengajar, arena kegiatan anak, tempat ibadah dan angkutan umum dinyatakan sebagai kawasan tanpa rokok.” Region without cigarettes is a room or area which is prohibited for production activities, sales, advertising, promotion and / or use of cigarette. It means that campus must be an area that is free from cigarette.

“Kampus sebagai suatu lembaga yang sampai saat ini masih diyakini sebagai tmpat kumpulnya kaum-kaum intelektual yang menjadi panutan masyarakat, seharusnya memberikan contoh yang baik kepada masyarakat. Sebagai insan intelektual seharusnya lebih tahu dan memahami akan bahaya rokok. Jika pertanyaannya menjadi sepakat atau tidak bila merokok dilarang di area kampus, saya sepakat asalkan proses-proses sosialisi dan lain sebagainya bisa diterapkan.” (Sayyidi, Muhammad. 2011)

Muhammad Sayyidi is the president of student organization of Universitas Padjadjaran. He said that campus is place where the intellectuals are. We have to become role models in society and should be the good example for society. Surely, we know more about the dangers of smoking. Because of that, we should not give a bad example like being a smoker in educational areas which is banned by government regulation.

Based on some reasons above, smoking in campus should be prohibited because it has a lot of harm, especially for passive smokers in campus. We can get only bad things from smoking like polluted air. Smoking in campus area also gives bad effects for the people around. The active smokers have to realize that smoking is useless for our body because it damages our health. Smoking can cause many diseases. Heart disease holds the top slot in the list of diseases that kill smokers. As the intellectuals, we have to know that cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemical compounds. 200 of which are known to be poisonous and upwards of 60 have been identified as carcinogens. It is no wonder that the effects of smoking are so widespread and destructive. We also have to remember that as good citizens we must obey with all government regulations. Let us be a better person without any cigarettes.

References


Tempo, Interaktif. PP RI No. 19 Tahun 2003 Tentang Pengamanan Rokok Bagi Kesehatan. 2011 [cited 2011 August 29th]; Available from: http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/peraturan/2004/04/01/prn,20040401-21,id.html.


Azis, Asruldin. Larangan Merokok Di Kampus. 2011 [cited 2011 August 29th]; Available from: http://asruldinazis.wordpress.com/2006/12/27/larangan-ngerokok-di-kampus-bener-gak-yah/.


UNAIR, FKM. Kampus Sebagai Kawasan Tanpa Rokok. 2011 [cited 2011 August 29th]; Available from: http://fkm.unair.ac.id/?p=338.


Satriya, Imam. Bahaya Merokok. 2009 [cited 2011 August 29th]; Available from: http://jeniuspemalas.blogspot.com/2009/03/bahaya-merokok-bahaya-bagi-perokok_05.html.