Otago university smoke-free from January

University of Otago vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne is expecting few problems achieving compliance when the university's Dunedin campus becomes completely smoke-free next year.

The University Council yesterday endorsed earlier plans to make the campus completely smoke-free from January 1. The university's previous smoking policy, introduced in 2010, already bans smoking within 6m of any building in the Dunedin campus.

Prof Hayne recommended all Otago University campuses be designated ''smoke-free areas'' from January 1, in a report considered at the council meeting.

Council member Roger Tobin asked how the policy would apply to associated residential colleges, which provide accommodation for Otago students but are not owned by the university.

Prof Hayne said such colleges had already agreed to comply with all university policies.

Council member Judge Oke Blaikie asked what penalties were being considered. He envisaged few problems with compliance but wondered if issues could arise after a strongly addicted smoker had been drinking. Prof Hayne said any penalties had not yet been decided but she was not expecting ''any huge issue'' with compliance.

There was ''a lot of social pressure [to comply] in non-smoking areas''.

''People just want to know what the rules are.''

Asked by a council member why the policy was not being introduced immediately, Prof Hayne said the latest international research had been taken into account in the implementation.

The university would accordingly be providing a ''huge amount of support'' for any staff and students who wanted to give up smoking, Prof Hayne said.

Prof Janet Hoek, of the Otago University marketing department, said smoking remained a major health problem in New Zealand, causing 5000 deaths each year, as well as a great deal of sickness and reduced quality of life.

Prof Hoek, deputy director of the ASPIRE2025 tobacco control research collaboration, said international research suggested some smokers at Otago University would give up moking, given the smoke-free policy.

And younger students would be less likely to start smoking because they would see fewer other people smoking, she said.

One US study compared a fully smoke-free American tertiary campus and another which was not smoke-free, and found significantly lower smoking rates among people at the former.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz