The University’s lack of a tobacco-free policy may prevent it from being recognized as a healthy environment by the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana DHH announced the “Well-Ahead” initiative last week, a state program that encourages healthy living by establishing “Well-Spots” around the state.
Various organizations like restaurants and businesses can become Well-Spots by meeting certain criteria established by the DHH.
Depending on how many standards the organizations meet, they can become Level Three, Level Two or Level One Well-Spots, with Level One being the highest designation.
While LSU is eligible to become a Well-Spot, the University’s campus does not meet of one the basic criteria — having a tobacco-free policy in place.
Act 211, passed by the state legislature, mandates the University have a smoke-free policy in place by August of this year.
It is currently undecided, however, whether the policy approved by University President F. King Alexander will be smoke-free or tobacco-free.
Caroline Brazeel, director of health promotion for the Office of Public Health, said the requirement of a tobacco-free policy was an
important distinction to make in the development of the criteria.
“It’s really a seminal moment in our health department’s history that we’re able to come out and promote something like that,” Brazeel said.
Brazeel noted there were several two-year and four-year colleges across the state that already had
tobacco-free policies in place and offered to help LSU develop any policies it seeks to institute.
“It’s not going to cut the mustard,” Brazeel said of the University’s potential smoke-free policy.
To become a Level Three Well-Spot, the University must not only instate a tobacco-free policy, but it must also meet another DHH criteria, like offering healthy food alternatives in campus vending machines.
A Level-Two designation requires two more criteria be met, while Level-One dictates all 10 criteria be covered.
According to the DHH website, the Well-Ahead initiative “promotes voluntary changes without imposing new taxes or creating new rules.”
Brazeel anticipates the program will be “very successful,” despite the lack of legal enforcement of the criteria.
“It just comes down to health behavior change,” Brazeel said. “That’s not something we need to legislate.”