New ‘Smoke-Free’ Certification for Colleges

Colleges can now officially be certified “smoke-free” by a health-education organization, The New York Times reports. The nonprofit organization Bacchus Network is granting the status to campuses that successfully provide documentation about their policies and their connections (or lack thereof) to tobacco companies. They must also submit photos of their smoke-free signs around campus.

Colleges pay $295 to apply. Nine colleges have applied so far and three have been successful. Bacchus offers three levels of certification, the article says. Winona State in Minnesota has achieved Silver, while Nebraska Methodist College and Oklahoma State have achieved Gold. No campus has yet attained Diamond status.

Many campuses say they are smoke-free. According to the American Lung Association, there are 259 tobacco-free campuses (which ban chew and snuff in addition to cigarettes), while the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation says there are 466 campuses that ban smoking on university grounds, as stated in the article.