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Show Vieivs&Opinion Friday, March 21, 2008 Page 13 Health: Our food choices affect many things [Mcontinued from page 12 • Do you have food or beverage addictions? • Do you fail to eat plant- foods (fruits, veggies, whole grains)? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions (only a sample of possible questions on diet and exercise) you may not be treating your body right. A faulty diet and inactivity can lead to inattentiveness, lethargy and a lifetime of chronic disease and hospital visits. It can make you more prone to infections and colds, decrease your energy level, negatively change your body composition and sabotage your happiness. Package this all together, and you may experience negative effects to your total performance in life. You and your body deserve better than this. You deserve the best return on your investment. Treat your body well, and you will be rewarded. An optimal diet puts you on the right track. Exercise keeps you on the right track. For more information, please visit: www.usu.edu/wellness (everyone) www.myregence.com (employees) www.usu.edu/swc/nutrition.html (students) www.sparkpeople.com (everyone) Have You Seen All The Caroline Shugart is the USU employee wellness coordinator. She is both a registered dietitian and a registered nurse, and is a contributor to the Be Well Heafth column. Smoke: Facts and ideas need some reshaping you can find at [Mcontinued from page 12 little likelihood of passing, is very much biased in favor of nonsmokers. Those in ASUSU are looking to possible amendments and alternatives, but in reality, not enough has been done to consider a compromise. Some possibilities include making it clear where the 25-foot line away from a building is, moving ashtrays away from doorways so smokers do not have to stay close to dispose of a cigarette, enforcing current rules or creating designated smoking areas. Another problem facing those considering a tobacco policy is a lack of accurate information. Many studies being cited by the USU Tobacco Task Force as justification for the proposed policy are about indoor secondhand smoke or are studies that are not specific to USU, such as from Finland or universities with a much higher percentage of on-campus smokers. According to the Utah Higher Education Health Behavior Survey in 2007,1.5 percent of USU students smoke. This was defined as having smoked in the last 30 days, so there is no information about how many students or faculty are actually the idea that officials want to protect the health of nonsmokers. If this is true, and the reason is not a moral objection or simply finding it distasteful, then there is no justification for banning chewing tobacco because it has no health risk to anyone other than the user. Banning smokeless tobacco products ultimately is on par with banning candy bars and sodas. All three are a health risk to the user, but not to anyone else. There is no protection of anyone else with the ban of smokeless tobacco. In the end though, something does need to be done. Without a conversation of the possibilities, smokers and nonsmokers alike will feel like they are being unfairly treated. Having an argument year aiter year is not going to solve the problem. Students need to have good information available and then open an effective dialogue about what can be done to help both groups Finally, the policy bans the use and achieve a good solution. sale of all tobacco products. That means those wishing to use chewing tobacco Di Lewis is the assistant features editor. would also be unable to do so. The Questions and comments can be sent tobacco ban is being promoted under to her at di.lewis@aggiemaiiusu.edu smoking while on campus. Because USU has such a low percentage of smoking students in comparison to other universities, using data from those universities does not compare with the risk on the USU campus. To let students make an informed decision about what they would like to do about tobacco on campus, accurate and relevant information must be available to them. There are also several issues within the policy that need further clarification. Currently, there is no limit as to the punishment people found violating the policy would receive. Leaving aside the possibility that a new policy may be unenforced like the current policy, this is problematic. It does seem highly unlikely that a student would be expelled for smoking, but the possibility should not even be there. It must be amended to limit and define the punishment allowable if violated. Myths: Studies are misleading and outdated Friday, March 21st •-W 7P« c -A Solder's Peace," USU [Mcontinued from page 12 anti-smoking agenda. prolonged periods. a beer or use tobacco on occasion. The American Lung Association Finally, Bennett speaks to the myth If nothing else, we all need to be vigi(ALA) statistics disputes these claims. If that people have a constitutional right lant against false information, especially we assume that the writer believed the to smoke, stating, "The privacy inter- when it is handed out by government discredited estimate that claims 53,000 est protected by the U.S. Constitution employees and officials. Because we non-smokers annually die from second- includes only marriage, contraception, are all somewhat guilty of harming othhand smoke, we should also assume she family relationships and the rearing and ers, we should always be considerate would trust the ALA report that claims educating of children." This is plainly when deciding which liberties and free70,000 lives a year are lost because incorrect; rather than giving an example doms should be banned and how far we of common air pollution. One would of Supreme Court opinions, she has should intrude into personal privacy. assume that considering her position, given a listing of the types of cases that While I can't speak for Bennett or the Bennett should have known that authori- have led us to our current understand- Bear River Health Department, I personties on the subject believe that more ing of Constitutional privacy. Any first ally would choose being in a room full people die from air pollution than SHS. year political science student will tell you of 100 smokers for an hour before going Considering that the air quality in that our legal system is based on case into a closed garage with a single runCache Valley can become far worse law, meaning one ruling can be applied ning car for 10 minutes. How about you? than the national average during inver- to similar cases. The Supreme Court Hopefully, some day common logic will sions, it seems apparent that the writer only hears cases they feel will have the trump emotion and social bias. would have trouble proving that walking broadest effect, while leaving specific by someone who is smoking a ciga- decisions to lower courts. Richard Okelberry is from River Heights, rette outside the Hub is worse for an What we as a society do with these Utah. For more information about secindividual than inhaling high levels of truths will ultimately determine how free ondhand smoking myths, visit www. ground-level ozone, particle pollution, we are as a society and will dictate lincolnsblog.com. carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and whether or not we will still be allowed nitrogen dioxide (just to name a few) for to drive our cars, have a Twinkie, drink 130^Emeri outside Plaza, or. Lounge If bad weather. www.afsc.org/eyes ^ V sol£Serspe acG.corn Saturday, March 22nd Peace WalK starting • • * " * * at «ounds of The Historic County Courthouse. 199 N. Main S I d Msic c*y CouncB Chambers. N Mft|n 5 t Buy Ons Whole Sub ol Choice A tr ' ' '• Twt 32 t L Orbits ft Gal a Whole i / KELSEY'g PbiaSub PIZZA (f 661N. MAIN Not wriltf will otharonori '**.- /BE.400N. 961 S. Mam nnxt to Macoy's 755-0262 BREAD COMPANY Buy any loaf Get S Bagels i% E3f7T & E^WKte Open E ^ Utah LARGE Papa's Perfect Pizza! $6.99 Mozzarella, Cheddar, & Provolono topped with 1/2 Peppwronl & 1/2 Hawaiian T A U ' S &AfcJi I'LULA Not valid with any other offers. Expires 2;51/08 .,,, ; :?1 |