Dutchess Community College Will Be Tobacco-Free This Spring

According to SUNY, more than a third of educational institutions in New York are now smoke-free or tobacco-free and Dutchess Community College is about to be added to that list.

SUNY Trustees passed “Tobacco-Free SUNY,” back in 2012. This resolution was in favor of the NYS legislature requiring all SUNY schools to establish 100% tobacco-free campus policies. According to the Hudson Valley News Network, almost half of the community colleges have gone tobacco- or smoke-free, including Ulster, Hudson Valley, Rockland, Cayuga, Adirondack, Schenectady, Broome, Columbia-Greene, and Westchester.

This ban will include cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, pipes, vaping, snuff, dip and all related products and will go into effect in May of 2016. Hudson Valley News Network is also reporting that DCC is working with state partners at the local Tobacco-Free Action Communities coalition to make progress over the coming year and will kick off its Tobacco-Free initiative on Thursday, Nov. 19 to coincide with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.