The University of California will ban smoking and chewing tobacco on all 10 campuses within two years, President Mark Yudof told campus chancellors this week. Nearly 600 other campuses nationwide have banned smoking, and many California universities either limit smokers to isolated parts of campus or keep them from lighting up at all.
…The university likely would have banned smoking earlier, but smokers vehemently argued against it, said Trish Ratto, a health educator and manager of UC Berkeley’s Health Matters Wellness Program. The university will implement the ban in stages to help smokers quit gradually rather go cold turkey. By 2014, however, nobody — students, professors, custodians or conference attendees — will be allowed to smoke or chew tobacco on campus…