FARMINGTON — When students return to the University of Maine at Farmington campus this week, they’ll find that a new tobacco-free policy aimed at promoting health and wellness began this month.
“UMF is committed to promoting a healthy environment for our students, faculty, staff and community,” UMF President Theodora J. Kalikow said. “This new policy is a positive step in helping to reduce health risks and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices.”
UMF’s new policy is based on the international consensus of medical authorities that smoking, secondhand smoke and tertiary residue from smoking are harmful to an individual’s health. Tertiary tobacco smoke residue clings to the clothing of smokers.
The tobacco-free policy covers all tobacco products, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing tobacco and non-FDA approved nicotine delivery devices, such as e-cigarettes. It applies to the entire campus, including athletic fields and parking lots.
This initiative was born of the committed work of the UMF Tobacco Task Force, a group of faculty, staff and students who joined forces in 2005 to help limit the campus community’s exposure to secondhand smoke. They began working in earnest on the development of a smoke-free policy for the campus in 2007.
Prior to that, UMF smoking policies complied with all Maine laws prohibiting smoking in university buildings and in outside areas of the campus where nonsmokers might be exposed to smoke. A smoke-free corridor was created on the UMF campus in 2002, in addition to smoke-free areas, including handicapped entrances and UMF-owned vehicles.
To support the UMF community’s transition to the new tobacco-free environment, the university is making smoking-cessation guidance available through the UMF Health Center. For additional assistance, UMF is making connections available to resources such as the Healthy Community Coalition, Healthy Maine Partnerships (Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Partnerships for a Tobacco-Free Maine and the Maine Tobacco Free College Network.
New signs have been posted in all campus buildings to remind employees, students and visitors of their responsibility to maintain a tobacco-free environment.
The University of Maine in Orono initiated a similar tobacco-free policy in 2011.
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