The Smoking Ban: Over a Year Later

By: Dalia Abdelwahab

@Lia_A0617

It has been over a year since AUC introduced a smoking ban on both of its campuses in Tahrir and New Cairo, restricting smoking to designated areas near the parking lots.

But many in the community are wondering whether it has met its goals.

The university’s administrators behind the ban have always said that the aim of the policy is to help AUC community members quit smoking.

The launch of a Smoking Cessation Unit, which offers counseling services and medication to those wishing to quit using nicotine, was central to the smoke-free campus policy.

Head of the Smoking Cessation Unit, Mohamed Amin, revealed that the idea behind the policy was introduced four years ago by the Parents’ Association.

“Many members believed that enrolling at AUC would lead their sons or daughters to start smoking. I had to explain to them that this issue is present at all Egyptian universities,” said Amin.

He acknowledged that many people who come to the Smoking Cessation Unit to seek its services, offered free of charge to members of the AUC community, are mostly staff members.

“None of the students were able to give up smoking, except for one American student who came here as part of a student exchange program. Some Egyptian students have also been here, but they eventually opted out of therapy,” explained Amin.

As for the designated smoking areas themselves, it appears that they have made their mark on both of AUC’s campuses as socialization spots.

“My friends – even the non-smokers – and I come here almost every day,” Architectural Engineering student Farah Wafik told The Caravan.

AUC’s smoke-free campus policy dictates that smoking is exclusive to the enclosed, marked-off designated spots near the parking lots.

Because of this, students who wish to smoke between classes often have to resort to going in and out of the gates, often causing queues at the end of the 15-minute gaps between classes.

“I used to simply smoke my morning cigarette on my way from any given class to another. Now, I have to walk all the way to the nearest smoking area before walking again to class. I have been late to multiple classes because of this,” said Wafik.

Originally, the university’s smoke-free campus policy included a plan to move the designated smoking areas outside both the campuses and their parking lots. However, this idea was rejected before implementation due to security concerns regarding student safety, along with interference by the university’s Student Union.

Amin is confident that the policy might be here to stay permanently.

“We are currently planning on launching an awareness campaign against electronic cigarettes and vaporizers. We will be explaining that they are no healthier than normal cigarettes, and that many vaporizers in particular are not approved for consumption by the US Food and Drug Administration,” he said.

Regardless, the smoke-free campus has had a positive impact and was useful for a certain demographic of non-smokers.

“As someone who has asthma, I found the ban relieving,” said Mechanical Engineering junior Ahmed Sayed.