I’m not sure how you feel about your rights when you are not allowed to smoke, or on the other hand when you want a smoke-free afternoon on your campus and you can’t enjoy one because you are enveloped in a smoke, emitted by your fellow campusers. Isn’t it discouraging to hear statistics where people, who never smoked, die of lung cancer on account of second-hand smoking, thanks to their colleagues at work who chain-smoked as much as they could without ever giving much thought about anybody else’s health let alone their own.

Well, one student of the postdoctoral physics program of the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is definitely determined to end smoking on his campus. Patrick Coles' line of thinking is understandable: “The main issue is to protect people’s right to breathe clean air and to promote a healthy campus.” ipetitions.com features the opportunity to sign up for this smoking-free campus petition.

The petition is not ungrounded and is not fully biased, based on Coles’ personal inclinations for no-smoking and healthy lifestyle: according to the survey taken in the spring 2009, 89% of the undergrad students of this establishment were non-smokers, which inevitably makes them the majority.

Even so, though, what does it make of the smoking Carnegie Melloners? Can’t they enjoy their smokes on the territory of their own campus? Well, not according to Patrick Coles and other petitioners, as it infringes on their freedom to inhale fresh air. How about the freedoms of the smokers on the campus being infringed in the case smoking will actually be banned? For instance there are voices such as this one: “I believe everybody has the right to their own decisions… Students didn’t sign up for a smoke-free campus.” To smoke or not to smoke, the battle is on!