The discussion, which drew enough students to fill the conference room in the Danforth University Center, featured Peter Benson, assistant professor of anthropology; Stephen LeFrak, pulmonologist and professor in the School of Medicine; and Doug Luke, professor in the Brown School of Social Work. The discussion was titled “Jumping on the ‘Ban’ Wagon: A Panel Discussion on Smoking Bans.”

Carson Smith, a University alumnus who works for the Center of Tobacco Policy Research with the Brown School, moderated the first part of the discussion. Following this portion of the discussion, the panel addressed specific student questions.

According to LeFrak, diseases associated with secondhand smoke are most often seen among those who work in the hospitality industry, such as waitresses and bartenders.

LeFrak said he believes the implementation of the tobacco ban probably will not prevent any chronic illnesses among University students.

“In terms of thinking about cardiovascular disease and cancer—particularly lung cancer—[contracting a disease from secondhand smoke] requires long exposures at high doses for long periods of time,” LeFrak said.

Benson shared his view that the University has other health concerns in mind, too, in enacting the ban.

“Secondhand smoke harms others, but the federal government has classified nicotine dependence as a disorder in its own right,” Benson said. “Wash. U. may therefore be justified in trying to create conditions to limit smoking.”

Studies consistently show that smoking bans lead to a 30 percent reduction in smoking rates in a community, according to Benson.

“Smoke-free legislation is one of the best ways to bring about that kind of dramatic result in people who stop smoking,” he said.

Benson argued that even though the University is an institution with diverse students who make different choices, the ability to smoke on campus is not a necessary component of a college atmosphere.

“While the rule may seem to betray the image of the college campus as a place where social norms can be challenged, it is not evident that tobacco use needs to be a part of an open-minded intellectual and social environment,” he said.

Students attending Controversy N’ Coffee praised the event for what it had to offer.

“The smoking ban is a great topic to discuss. All the professors were really wonderful speakers and had really great opinions,” sophomore Greg Schwartz said. “I thought it was a great experience.”

While the tobacco ban discussion was the first Controversy N’ Coffee event this year, the student group behind the event has been around for almost a year and a half.

Controversy N’ Coffee coordinator Allison Pearson, a junior, said the discussions really took off at the beginning of last year.

“We went to the activities fair last fall and just said, ‘Hey, we’ll give it a shot [and] see if anyone’s interested in joining us,’” Pearson said. “We were a brand new group. No one had ever heard of us.”

The group seeks to generate discussions between students, faculty and staff on various topics of interest. In the past, Controversy N’ Coffee has hosted talks about educational inequality, the national drinking age and the state of the economy.

For last spring’s discussion on gay marriage, around 130 students showed up.

Although the group is still relatively new to campus, it is attracting a larger crowd with each discussion.

“Our group is growing, our events are growing, and we’re getting better at what we do,” Pearson said.

According to Nguyen’s survey, the two subjects overlap in how the environment affects health and how environmental policies relate to social welfare.

This same survey was given to four of the schools at Washington University last May, Nguyen said. However, the survey was not given to the College of Arts & Sciences, the largest of the undergraduate schools. Nguyen said that doing the survey again was important in making sure that the results represented all students at the University.

Nguyen’s survey is intended to determine interest both from graduate and undergraduate students in classes that deal with the intersection between environmental and social issues.

“I was thinking pretty broadly. I wanted to start a program here, and I was thinking about what role the Brown School could play both for our students and then for any other professionals that are doing environmental work but should be considering social issues as well,” she said.

Nguyen said that initial responses from students indicate that there is a high level of interest in such classes. She estimates that 10 percent of those responding said they would definitely work on environmental issues professionally, and an additional 20 percent said there was a possibility.

Additionally, 50 percent planned to work on social issues.

“We didn’t really get a good picture of what undergraduates are interested in last year,” Nguyen said.

Since offering the survey to all schools, the number of undergraduates who responded rose to more than 700, representing more than 10 percent of the undergraduate population, which is much higher than the average response of only three percent, according to Nguyen.

“By and large, the majority of the respondents now are undergrads,” she said.

The survey also asked students to rate the likelihood that they would enroll in classes that would potentially deal with environmental and social issues. While Nguyen noted that the classes were just to give the students an idea of the types of issues addressed, the response from students was very positive.

“The classes I proposed aren’t ones professors have said they will teach. Students have given feedback [on the classes],” Nguyen said.

“Management and Mitigation of Environmental Disasters” and “The Triple Bottom Line: Profitability and Social and Ecological Sustainability” are just two examples of classes suggested in the survey.

According to Nguyen, that preliminary analysis suggested that undergraduate students were more likely to say they would work professionally on environmental and social issues, but she said that the analysis was not complete since the initial data only included a small number of undergraduate students.

Students also have the option of volunteering to be part of a focus group on the topic. According to Nyugen, the focus groups allow more in-depth information to be collected—data that the survey cannot provide.

Nguyen hopes that with students demonstrating such high levels of interest, the University might expand the number of classes available.

“We need to give data that there’s an unmet need so we can develop a program. I’m also looking at whether there are job pathways for students that have social work and environmental training,” Nguyen said. “I think there’s room for expansion of the undergrad classes.”

She also mentioned that the election season probably makes students more aware of the issues that she is dealing with.

“With rising gas prices and oil prices and then rising food prices that are related and other things, there are a lot of things that have come up that made people realize the impact the environment has on people,” Nguyen said. “It’s because it’s affecting their pocketbook, it’s affecting them directly. That’s usually when change happens. With any profession, it’s not going to get developed until there’s a need for it.”