With roofs over smoking areas and free courses for students and employees who want to quit smoking, Radboud University takes the next step to a smoke-free campus.

For a while now, vice-president Wilma de Koning has been annoyed by the clouds of cigarette smoke and the butts on the ground in front of the university library. Her announcement that the university strives for a smoke-free campus was met with much less resistance than expected. So now the university, advised by Radboudumc’s pediatric pulmonologist Peter Merkus, is gearing up for the next step.

Bus stops
To reduce passive smoking to a minimum, the entrances of buildings will be made smoke-free from now on. Who does still want to light a cigarette, can use shelters that are also used for bus stops. The locations of those shelters will be made public in summer, and they will be installed in the second half of 2019.

On top of that, students and employees who want to quit smoking can take a course at the Radboud University Health, safety and environment services. This course is offered for free, you have to send an email to register.

The idea behind both measures is that Radboud University wants a healthy work and study environment for all students and employees. ‘With this in mind, the university wants to work on reducing smoking and passive smoking on campus’, says university spokesman Martijn Gerritsen. ‘It is generally known that smoking is bad for your health. According to the Trimbos Institute, 20.000 people die annually from smoking-related diseases and thousands from the effects of passive smoking.’