AMHERST, N.Y. — If two state lawmakers get their way, no one will be doing any kind of vaping at school. They are proposing a bill that would ban all vaping at all schools - including colleges and universities.
Right now, the state's Public Health Law prohibits smoking and vaping in several indoor areas, like educational buildings.
This bill would expand those guidelines to include "outdoor areas contained within a public or private school."
Some students at the University at Buffalo's North Campus feel vaping is a very common occurrence at school.
“Vaping is really common among college students,” said Freshman Artisha Fayaz. “Every college student you see always has a vape in their pocket.”
“People definitely vape on campus,” said Sophomore Mason Dear. “But, I haven’t talked to anybody where it gets in the way of their studies.”
However, these students question how realistic it would be to stop every student from vaping.
“It would be a very hard thing to control, because you can vape pretty much anywhere,” said senior Mason Pugh.
“I’ve always seen that college students find some way to get things done,” Fayaz said.
Andrew Highland is the chair of Roswell Park’s Department of Health Behavior.
He feels that education combined with stricter rules like this could be successful, because it's happened before.
“Schools have been tobacco-free for decades, college campuses have been tobacco-free for a long time, so there’s successful lessons to be learned there,” Highland said.
He hopes that this can help more children and young adults understand how dangerous vaping could be.
“Directly inhaling something into your lungs certainly is not a healthy thing to do. Getting hooked on any vaping or tobacco product is a bad idea.”
If you need support with a vaping addiction, you can text ‘DROPTHEVAPE’ to 88709 to connect with New York’s anonymous support line.
For more information and resources to quit, call 311 or visit nyc.gov/health and search for e-cigarettes.
