Rating:

4.0 (5 votes)

Smoking was officially snuffed out Thursday at the University of Kentucky with the start of a strict tobacco-free policy everywhere on the sprawling campus in the heart of burley tobacco country.

The ban includes outdoor areas and applies to chew, pipes, cigars and snuff as well as cigarettes.

Kentucky is the nation's leading producer of burley tobacco, an ingredient in cigarettes, and will keep plenty of ties to tobacco, even with the ban.

Its College of Agriculture offers production advice to tobacco growers and the school is home to a research center that is seeking new commercial uses for tobacco.

The new policy was welcomed by nonsmoker Kelly Stilz, a senior from Louisville.

"It'll be nice walking to class and not having to walk in a cloud of smoke," Stilz said Thursday while eating a quick breakfast on campus.

Matt Danter, a sophomore from Hopkinsville, said that as a nonsmoker he had no strong feelings about the policy, but said "it seems a little contradictory" given Kentucky's status as a leading tobacco producer.

Danter says he has friends on campus who smoke who don't like the policy. Danter says he expects to see plenty of smoking scofflaws on campus.

"If there's a will, there's a way," he said.

Kent Ratajeski, a lecturer in the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the tobacco-free policy "encroaches on freedom to some degree."

"I think the university is telling them how to live their lives," he said.

UK has prohibited smoking in its buildings and within 20 feet of buildings since 2006.

Scott Smith, dean of UK's College of Agriculture, said the university still grows tobacco on its farms as part of its research to assist growers and the industry.

"Tobacco remains an important crop to many Kentucky farms," he said.

Elsewhere, the University of Louisville also kicked off a policy Thursday on most places on campus. Rather than asking its employees and students to quit cold turkey, however, UofL began a phase out of smoking. The university was setting up 18 designated smoking areas on its main Belknap campus. Smoking will be prohibited elsewhere on campus.

"As a university committed to our students, faculty and staff, we are emphasizing the health benefits of not smoking," said UL provost Shirley Willihnganz.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)