Duke University welcomes vaping

The prestigious university, with ties to cigarettes, is banning smoking but welcomes vaping.

The trend in the US right now is for universities to go smoke-free. This is no different for Duke University, but instead of banning e-cigarettes along with cigarettes like the others, this university is embracing vaping.

The move to ban tobacco products is quite surprising however as the university has it’s roots firmly planted in the tobacco industry. Duke University, based in Durham, was named after donor James Buchanan Duke, who started his American Tobacco Company in the town.

One of the reasons for the ban came after a study showed that under 2% of new students are regular smokers at Dukes, but after living in its campus 11.4% percent smoke. This is a big increase and the university want to curb this deadly habit by rather proposing a healthier option.

Vaping is proven to be at least 95% less harmful than tobacco products. Countries like the UK have even pushed campaigns on switching to its citizens and it’s been a huge success. Smoking rates are declining dramatically and with it the health of a country is improving in leaps and bounds.

We welcome forward-thinking universities such as Duke and hope to see this becoming a trend, not only in the US, but worldwide.