IPFW Going Smoke-Free
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne says it will become a smoke- and tobacco-free campus beginning in April. Chancellor Vicky Carwein says the ban will benefit “the well-being of our entire community.”
February 24, 2014
News Release
Fort Wayne, Ind. — Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) will become a smoke-free and tobacco-free campus effective April 1, 2014. The use of cigarettes, cigars, oral tobacco, electronic cigarettes, and all other tobacco products will be prohibited on campus and other sites controlled, operated, or leased by the university.
“Implementing a tobacco-free policy will bring added benefits to the well-being of our entire community,” said Chancellor Vicky Carwein. “Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke remain the leading causes of preventable disease and death worldwide. Our students, faculty, and staff deserve a healthy place in which to learn, work, and live, and this policy will help accomplish that.”
With the announcement, IPFW joins sister campus Indiana University Bloomington, as well as the regional campuses of Purdue and IU, all of which adopted smoke/tobacco-free policies.
Nationwide, more than 1,100 colleges and universities have adopted tobacco-free or smoke-free policies, and the Department of Health and Human Services' Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative has urged all campuses to to promote and support the adoption and implementation of tobacco-free policies.
The most recent Surgeon General report added to the list of harmful effects of cigarettes in that nearly half a million people will die from smoking-related diseases this year. The report released last month adds even more diseases to the previous list of smoking-caused diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction, macular degeneration that can cause blindness, two additional cancers—liver and colorectal—and cleft palate birth defects.
A copy of the tobacco and smoke-free policy can be found online at ipfw.edu/chancellor.
For information on how to quit smoking or to stop using tobacco products, please contact the IPFW Center for Healthy Living and Wellness at 260-481-5748 or visit the Health and Wellness website.
Source: Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne