Point/Counterpoint: Walking smokers

Have you ever been walking to class and suddenly you get a face full of smoke? It seems that the person walking in front of you just can’t resist the urge to smoke or vape while walking in a crowd of people. An annoyance for some might be justified for others.

Just don’t walk and smoke

There’s a special kind of menace that lurks on the sidewalks — not the people that text while walking to class or the slowest walker alive that you always seem to get stuck behind — but the walking smoker. You know the type: earbuds in, coffee in one hand, cigarette in the other, striding down the sidewalk like they’re on top of the world. 

Now, I don’t have anything against smoking. Smoke if you want — in your backyard, on your balcony, even in those little designated smoking areas (it’s literally in the name). I don’t mind when people smoke, it’s the use of cigarettes as a portable chimney that I can’t stand. 

The issue isn’t just the smell, although I definitely don’t love it. Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals and at least 70 of those chemicals can cause cancer. Cigarettes are toxic and walking smokers are spreading those chemicals to unwitting recipients all the time. 

There’s also the issue of where the smoke goes. Universities and other public places build designated smoking areas for a reason, but walking smokers treat them like suggestions. This causes smoke to waft into doorways, bus stops, and the faces of unsuspecting people just trying to get from one place to another. It defeats the purpose of having smoke-free spaces at all.

Then there’s the litter. Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter in the world. Additionally, used cigarette filters may take over a decade to decompose, leaching nicotine and microplastics into the surrounding environment. That dramatic mid-stride cigarette flick may feel cinematic, but it’s really just exaggerated pollution. 

Let’s not forget the irony of walking smokers either — walking is supposed to be healthy. Combining it with smoking feels like washing down a kale salad with gasoline. And those of us who like to breathe while we walk do not appreciate your multitasking. 

So, walking smokers, from one person who has to breathe to another: please sit down, have your smoke, and let the wind do its thing after you’re done. If you don’t, it’s not just your lungs taking the hit, it’s everyone else’s too. 

— Peris Jones

It makes more sense to roam and smoke

While it is honestly better to find a good spot to sit and have a smoke, there aren’t really any actually designated smoking spots for cigarettes. Only designated cannabis smoke areas. For cigarettes, there’s only really spots with trashes known to be for cigarette butts. And if we do go find a spot with the long necked cigarette butt trash, they’re sometimes in spots so bad that it’s honestly better to go roam and come back to throw out the butt.

Let’s say you’re a smoker. You’re in Tory. You go out back to the doors facing the river, and you have a quick smoke between classes. You’ll quickly notice the massive migration of students from east campus to west. And before you know it, depending on the wind, you are quite literally smoking in their faces. In response, like any aware person, you’ll probably respond by going off on a walk anywhere but there. Realistically, it’s more rude to dig trench and stand there with smoke likely hitting every single person passing by.

Even the cannabis smoking spot behind SUB is a bit of a weird spot. There’s often people coming and going and it’s surely hard to keep smoke isolated. Standing or roaming, there’s never really any time the smoke doesn’t have a mind of its own.

While a smoker on a walk can definitely be having smoke waft around to others passing by, if you go to U of A or are around any cars at all ever, you know there are worse smells, and you definitely are inhaling car exhaust, which is pretty bad for you.

And for those who litter, that’s inexcusable. While the cigarette butt trashes are in some odd spots, anyone smoking should definitely be pocketing them for later to throw them out properly.

But as a whole, I’d argue it’s better to roam away and back to the cigarettes butt trashes than it is to smoke at them and be a nuisance. But that being said, being mindful of where the smoke is going is definitely important. No one should be bothering people with smoke if they can help it.

— Liam Hodder