Say something

If someone is smoking on UC property, feel free to say something.

When you let someone know that their behavior has an impact on you in a respectful manner, you may be able to influence them to make a change.

You may yield better results by requesting that the smoker modify their behavior (could you kindly move to location X?) rather than criticizing their choice to smoke, describing the negative health effects of smoking, or citing campus policies.

  • "Excuse me, may I make a request? I'm working on keeping myself healthy lately, and I've noticed that I'm especially sensitive to smoke. Would you be willing to smoke somewhere else or put out your cigarette for the time being?"
  • "Hello, I realize you wouldn't know this, but I have asthma/allergies and I would be really appreciative if you could smoke in a different location."
  • "I don't like to be around cigarette smoke. I'll wait for you over here."

It may help to practice in advance how you would say something to different people (e.g. classmate, co-worker, stranger, etc.).

You can give this "thank you for not smoking" card to people who are smoking/vaping on campusPrint, or contact hpromo@berkeley.edufor pre-printed cards.