Total smoke bans were applied at the universities of Western Australia, Curtin and Edith Cowan from January 1, while Murdoch plans to follow suit by the beginning of next year. The four will join the Fremantle-based University of Notre Dame, where smoking was banned from all indoor and outdoor facilities in 2002.
The public universities’ move follows an accord by the four vice-chancellors for a total phase-out. “They all decided to bite what I think isn’t a very large bullet,” said Curtin health policy professor and anti-smoking campaigner Mike Daube.
“Universities are where the research has been done on identifying the harms of smoking. It is not appropriate that you should have smoking on university campuses any more than on health premises.”
But Murdoch opted for a staged ban, with accompanying education and awareness campaigns, following consultation by working groups and heavy opposition from some students.
“In our view a transition year was more likely to deliver better results in terms of achieving a smoke-free campus environment for 2013,” said acting vice-chancellor Gary Martin.
The University of Adelaide also phased in its total smoking ban between in 2010 and 2011. Meanwhile James Cook University’s Cairns campus has banned smoking from all but four external designated areas, while Macquarie will this year review plans for a total smoking ban from 2015.
Smoking is banned from the grounds of many TAFEs and most schools, including all public schools in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. Total smoke bans are also common in overseas universities including about 640 US campuses, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
In WA, tobacco sales are being banned and ashtrays removed from campuses, with reminder signs and bins for cigarette butts installed at key entry points. But staff and students are encouraged to quit smoking rather than scurry off-campus for a puff, with UWA allowing staff to salary sacrifice the cost of quit smoking classes.
“We don’t want to punish smokers – we want to help them and ensure a healthier environment for everybody,” said human resources director Bob Farrelly.
A UWA spokesperson said no staff had been assigned to enforce the new regulations, but that disciplinary action could be taken against repeat infringers.
ECU has also arranged support programs for staff and students, but $250 fines can be levied. Penalties also apply at Curtin.
“[But] there aren’t going to be squads of smoke police driving around campus,” said Professor Daube.
“I don’t think there’ll be much more than the need for the odd tap on the shoulder, which is to some extent what happens now anyway. If people don’t like smoking around them, they’ll gently say so.
“I’m sure that somewhere in the middle of a campus, somebody will light up a cigarette. But the campuses will be 99.9 per cent smoke free, and that’s pretty good.”
Professor Daube said a Curtin survey had found that just 4 per cent of students were regular smokers, compared to the general population rate of about 15 per cent.
He said WA had the lowest rate of smoking amongst young people – 4.8 per cent of 12-17 year-olds. “We’re not going to get many smokers among university students.”
Professor Daube said passive smoking was still an issue in the open air, because people tended to smoke in areas where people congregated. “They don’t rush off into isolated areas to have a smoke.”
He said the ban was also about making a statement. “Our universities are sending out a signal that smoking is not now a normal and acceptable behaviour.”
National Tertiary Education Union president Jeannie Rae said the bans were a good idea, so long as there were accompanying staff support programs.
She said the move would improve workplace safety for staff and help protect young people at a stage of waning parental influence.
“As big public workplaces, it’s probably the sort of thing universities should do,” she said.
She said smoking had reached a “tipping point” in universities and was no longer the focal activity for ‘water cooler conversations’.
“People sit around what used to be smoker’s corner without cigarettes,” she said.
“Smokers get dirty looks from people to move away and let them not smoke in peace.”
UWA said only a handful of students and staff had opposed the change. But student support for the ban hasn’t been universal, with Murdoch students worried smokers could endanger themselves by heading off-campus for night-time cigarettes.
They were also concerned that international students and visitors wouldn’t understand the ban.
“We are already a minority group as smokers, and it ostracises us even further,” student Alexs Huber told the Murdoch University newspaper last year.
“They have to understand that there will always be smokers no matter how much people protest it.”
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