Tobacco-free campuses

As the Regional Manager for the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) for the New Orleans area, I build support and awareness for the importance of safer and healthier environments for all citizens in Louisiana, including the students in Louisiana.

I applaud Tulane University and the University of New Orleans (UNO) for implementing a policy that prohibits the use of tobacco products across the entire campus. Tulane and UNO join the more than the 1,300 U.S. universities that are striving to protect students, faculty and staff from the dangerous effects of tobacco use.

We’ve come a long way in expanding tobacco-free policies across Louisiana. These policies clear the air for more of our students, faculty and staff and it encourages them to either quit or never start using tobacco.

This accomplishment would not have been possible without the foresight and courage of the UNO and Tulane administrations who acted on the knowledge that the University’s students, faculty, staff and visitors want and deserve to breathe clean, smoke-free air. Across Louisiana, state and local policymakers are joining the movement to make Louisiana’s air healthier for all, and now Tulane and UNO can proudly say that they’re part of that movement, too.

– Geoff Brien
Regional Manager, Region 1
The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living

This article originally published in the August 4, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.