Princeton university bans smoking in undergraduate dormitories.

concerns relating to passive smoking and fire hazards prompt bans.

Concerned about the effects of second-hand smoke or passive smoking and following other peer institutions, Vice President for Campus Life Janet S. Dickerson announced she has accepted recommendations from students to prohibit smoking in undergraduate dorms. Dickerson also has asked the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and Office of Housing to involve students in formulating regulations for implementing the new policy, which will become effective in the fall.

"This has been an issue under consideration for many years due to the concerns about both fire hazards and second-hand smoke," Dickerson said. "The work of the Undergraduate Life Committee (ULC) has found that  a vast number of Princeton undergraduates strongly support smoke-free housing. The ULC also noted its respect for an individuals right to smoke but found this right did not outweigh the rights of others to be free of second-hand smoke."

The ULC began focusing more intently on smoke-free housing at the start of the 2004-05 academic year after reviewing policies related to tobacco free dorms, Dickerson said. The process, co-chaired by senior Juan Lessing, included extensive student involvement through surveys and discussions. The ULC cited a number of factors for recommending the new policy that included:

• The increased potential for fire hazards. Approximately thirty-five fire alarms each year are set off on campus due to smoking, and there have been fires caused by smoking in rooms, including a 1993 fire that caused minor injuries to a student, the evacuation of one hundred and fifty students and $350,000 in damage.
• The reduction in air-quality caused by second-hand smoke because the smoke cannot successfully be contained to individual dormitory rooms. Most air ducts in individual rooms are connected to ducts in common areas.
• New information regarding the risks of second-hand smoke and smoking in college, including a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that stated college students who live in smoke-free residence halls are forty percent less likely to take up smoking than their counterparts who live in housing where smoking is permitted.
• A 2004 health survey showing that less than seventeen percent of undergraduates smoke and, of those, about eighty-five percent said they hope to stop smoking before they graduate. A Web survey with two hundred and seventy-five respondents showed that sixty-three percent of undergraduates supported smoke-free housing.
• The prohibition of all or most smoking in dorms at all other Ivy League universities and many other institutions.