People should not be able to smoke in the Free Expression Tunnel. Why the Free Expression Tunnel, you ask? Well, the other tunnels are still annoying, but they are shorter, and therefore it is easier to not breathe while walking through them.

And just so you know, I don’t care if you smoke. I really don’t. I’m not going to be that girl that coughs intermittently at the bar hoping you get the hint to put out your cigarette when I could just as easily move.

I’m also not going to preach to you about the health hazards of smoking. I used to do it, and I am aware that they are listed on the box. However, the point of this column is to ask your tobacco-loving self for a little lenience regarding my own personal pet peeve.

Why does this bother me when the clusters of individuals in the “smoking square” between Harrelson and Dabney do not? It is because I can’t avoid you. The tunnel is already a toxic place for my lungs, being freely filled with paint fumes, probably asbestos and whatever sort of noxious creations that are living behind that little camouflaged door. Most of the time, however, I can’t smell them, so those things and I, we are cool.

In any case, the tunnel is an enclosed space and when you are stuck walking behind someone holding a lit Marlboro Light, you quickly begin to regret the decision to forego walking around the tracks in favor of perusing the latest graffiti. Especially since he/she always seems to be walking slowly, whether as a result of reduced cardiovascular capacity or simply because he/she is enjoying his/her cigarette and the art, I can’t be sure. 

A 2006 Surgeon General’s Report concluded that even short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier and damage the lining of blood vessels, potentially raising the risk of a heart attack, but I am not interested in that. To be quite honest, it doesn’t have anything to do with getting cancer or heart disease. I really just don’t like the smell.

I mean, I don’t like sticky blood, but I really don’t like holding my breath to walk the 30 seconds through the Tunnel.

Before you start writing into the Campus Forum shouting about how I am a hypocrite because I myself used to smoke, let me make it clear that I avoided this particular smoking faux pas at all cost. And I smoked clove cigarettes, which you can smell from approximately 1.7 miles away.

Let it be known that I am not asking you to quit smoking, and I’m not even asking you to smoke 25 feet from any building, as the University does. I’m only asking that as you descend into State’s haven for the First Amendment, please crush your cigarette whether half-smoked or almost to the filter. Or better yet, just wait until the other side to light up.