Michelle Peterson/Winonan

Winona State University lifted the moratorium on hookahs and electronic cigarettes (e-cigs): e-cig use is restricted on campus, and hookahs are banned.

E-cigs are treated the same as cigarettes. Students can have them in dorms and on campus, but they cannot use them.

Hookahs are not allowed on campus at all. They are equivalent to drug paraphernalia because they can be used with substances other than tobacco.

The decision not to allow e-cigs on campus was based largely on the court case Sottera, Inc. v. Food & Drug Administration in 2010, which defined e-cigs as tobacco products that could be regulated by the FDA. Because of this case, the department of student life and development at Winona State decided its policy on tobacco products encompassed e-cigs and did not need to be changed.

Alex Kromminga, director of conduct and citizenship in student life and development, said, “We did a lot of research, but everything kind of led back to this FDA decision.”

The department also researched other universities’ policies on hookahs and e-cigs to make its decision. Universities such as California Berkley have the same policy.

Students have conflicting opinions about treating e-cigs as cigarettes.

Kelly Mitzel, senior, said it’s inconvenient for her to leave campus just to use an e-cig.

Mitzel explained that a large part of being a smoker is the ritual of smoking: walking to the curb, lighting a cigarette and having the hand-to mouth fixation.

“E-cigarettes are not worth the walk to the curb when they can be smoked indoors,” Mitzel said. “If I’m going to go through the routine of going to the curb, I’m going to smoke a cigarette.”

Christin Gill, a senior who smokes cigarettes, said he thinks e-cigs should be allowed to be smoked on campus, but not in buildings.

Emily Tim, a senior, said, “They don’t leave a smell, and there’s no second-hand smoke.”

E-cigs are not FDA regulated, so the university cannot be certain the vapor is safe for people around smokers.

Tim and her friends understood why the university chose to ban e-cigs.

“As an institution, it makes sense,” Tim said.

Kromminga said students insist that hookahs are only used for tobacco products, but he knows hookahs can be used with other substances.

Josh Villeneuve, sophomore, “I feel like they’re overreacting a bit. I smoked hookah outside a lot, and never once did we use it for drugs.”

However, students are more understanding of the ban on hookahs than the one on e-cigs, since hookahs are used with tobacco.

“I see a reason more to ban that than e-cigs. If they had to ban something, I guess it would be that,” Mitzel said.

Kromminga said the university doesn’t care if people use hookahs or e-cigs off campus, but on campus they want to provide a high-quality environment for students.

Kromminga said there are FDA approved e-cigs for smoking cessation, but the FDA has not approved the average e-cig that people buy from a store. He explained that it would be too much work to determine whether a student is using an FDA approved e-cig or not, so they decided not to allow them on campus at all.

Kromminga said the department is open to modifying its policy on e-cigs in the future if they all become FDA approved.

“Until that time, we have to view it as a tobacco product,” Kromminga said.

Contact Michelle at [email protected]