Smoking has become a hot issue at SF State this fall as a new mandate that limits tobacco use to seven designated zones takes effect.

Many at SF State wonder whether the fledgling policy will accomplish its stated goal and eliminate second-hand smoke from heavily trafficked areas on campus or if the rule will merely be a loosely enforced attempt at eliminating smoke.

“I don’t see what the point is,” Madison Peet, a non-smoking sophomore said.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s made an effort to find the smoking sections. Besides, who cares if they smoke outside anyway?”

An announcement was posted on the SF State Web site in August, and it was accompanied by a map detailing where smoking is allowed on campus but no signs have been posted yet to help smokers find the areas, and many find that the areas located on the perimeter of campus are too far to bother with.

“There’s nowhere to go near the Humanities building,” 22-year-old smoker Justin Milunas said. “I don’t want to impose my smoke on others, but come on, smokers have rights too.”

The Environmental Protection Agency classified first-hand and second-hand tobacco smoke as a Class A carcinogen in 1993. Given enough doses of the substance, humans are known to develop nose or lung cancer.