Tobacco Free Policy FAQ's

The policy does affect students, faculty, staff, and visitors including vendors, contractors and service providers at all University owned facilities and in all university owned or leased vehicles.  This includes all indoor and outdoor campus spaces including campus buildings, grounds, exterior open spaces, green spaces, parking lots (including inside a vehicle if parked in an MU lot), on-campus sidewalks (not bordering a city street), on-campus driveways and other paved areas, athletic facilities, practice facilities, and recreational spaces.  

Tobacco products are defined as any and all forms of tobacco and smokeless tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, snuff, snus, water pipes, pipes, hookahs, chew, any other non-combustible tobacco product (e.g. dissolvables), and electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes and other vaping devices.

The FDA does not consider e-cigarettes or vaping devices to be a safe nicotine delivery system or smoking cessation strategy.  They can also produce large vapor clouds that are inhaled by others.  Approved nicotine cessation products such as gum and patches are allowed. 

• Smokeless tobacco spit is considered a biohazard and contains at least 24 carcinogenic chemicals
• Spit tobacco creates unwanted hazardous waste and byproducts, requiring disposal by campus maintenance staff
• A dip of smokeless tobacco typically contains 3-5 times more nicotine than a cigarette.  Research shows that smokers have difficulty switching from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco.  Instead, many become dual users of both cigarettes and smokeless products.
• Environmental concerns.  Smokeless tobacco still uses the same tobacco manufacturing methods that cause deforestation, soil erosion, and poverty.

Neither smoking nor the use of tobacco products will be permitted within the boundaries of University controlled properties.  Once outside the boundaries of University controlled properties, smoking and use of tobacco products is subject to local jurisdiction. The university does not own the sidewalks and streets that border its campus, e.g. Wisconsin Avenue and the sidewalks immediately bordering.

Tobacco and its purchase and usage is legal for adults above the age of 21, as of December 20, 2019. The intent of a tobacco free policy is not to force anyone to quit. However, the university owns all campus properties, and can establish policies that protect the health of all university members. A tobacco-free policy establishes where use can occur.

Using tobacco is a personal choice, not a constitutional right. Smoking tobacco or using e-cigarettes/vaping devices can cause harm to the health of others..  Prohibiting smoking and the use of tobacco products on campus preserves everyone’s right to breathe clean, smoke-free air while allowing individuals who smoke and use tobacco products to continue to do so off-campus.