FULLERTON : Smoking Ban for Fullerton College

Fullerton College has imposed an all-out smoking ban in all campus buildings.

The decision last week by a 16-member commission makes Fullerton College the seventh of eight community colleges in the county that have banned smoking on campus. Cypress College still allows smoking in designated areas.

The commission, which is made up of educators and other employees at the college, voted unanimously for the ban because of increasing evidence of the harm of secondhand smoke and a changing attitude about smoking by the student population, said Al Bush, spokesman for the college.

Bush said the college’s last remaining cigarette machine will be removed from the student center.

He said the school has no intention of organizing a smoke patrol that would cruise the 88-acre campus, issuing citations to smokers. “All we’re going to do is get rid of the ashtrays on campus,” Bush said. “It’s up to the students to obey the smoking ban.”

In the last two years, a growing swell of support to ban smoking from public buildings and schools has increased. In the county’s two public universities--UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton--smoking is only permitted in certain areas.