COLUMBUS -- In a unanimous vote Monday, the Ohio Board of Regents is asking all of the state's public college and university campuses to ban all tobacco use both indoors and outdoors.
The resolution was the product of a review that shows that such a ban would cut costs for education and be of a benefit to both smokers and non-smokers.
The ban would affect the public campuses, like The Ohio State University, which already has a ban on indoor smoking. It would also ban the sales and advertising of all tobacco products on the campuses.
The board stressed that the decision will ultimately be up to each institution's board of trustees on a school-by-school basis.
Not everyone is in favor of implementing a no-tobacco-products policy when the bans have been implemented across the U.S., including staff, faculty and students.
The Ohio Board of Regents is chaired by James Tuschman. The regents are James F. Patterson, Dr. Walter A. Reiling, Jr., Patricia A. Ackerman, Timothy M. Burke, Lana Z. Moresky, Vinod K. Gupta, and Virginia M. Lindseth, along with Chancellor Jim Petro.
Also speaking at Monday's meeting were Michael F. Roizen, MD, the Chief Wellness Officer and Chairman of the Wellness Institute at The Cleveland Clinic; Dr. Theodore E. Wymyslo, the director of the Ohio Board of Health; and Mari-Jean Sieh, chief of the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program.
Wymsylo told the board in previous meetings that such a ban would help universities and colleges implement tobacco-free policies.
WKYC-TV