TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (TCD) is set to become a vape-free campus next week.

From 18 March, students, staff and visitors will no longer be allowed to use e-cigarettes or vapes on campus, except for three allocated smoking areas.

Martina Mullin, Healthy Campus Manager at TCD, told The Journal that while there are other campuses around Ireland which are already vape-free, Trinity is unique in how it enforces the policy.

Student ambassadors complete circuits of the campus six to eight times a week to remind people of the smoke-free, and soon to be vape-free, policy.

When asked if students ever face any anger on these circuits, Mullin said there have been over 500 face-to-face interventions where students have “looked people in the face” and reminded them of the smoke-free policy.

“They would say, ‘You’re probably not aware of the fact we’re a tobacco-free campus, would you mind moving?’

“And we’ve never had a problem. Now, it can be intimidating sometimes for students so we say to them, if they feel in any way uncomfortable, they shouldn’t walk up.

“It’s hard when you’re 20 to walk up to a group of people, but we’ve never had a problem and our students are trained to never get into an argument and only to ever do what they feel comfortable with.”

Mullin added that there is a “really high vaping prevalence amongst our students” and that vaping is happening in the library and during lectures.

A survey of students in 2023 found that 57% had vaped at least once and 31% currently vaped.

Mullin also said that Trinity is seeing an increase in people signing up for stop-smoking and stop-vaping courses.

Meanwhile, Mullin said students have felt more called to action over the environmental impacts of vaping, rather than any health concerns.

“It’s been our experience that if you put up a social media post saying ‘not smoking or not vaping is climate action’, you get much more reaction than saying ‘not smoking or vaping will prevent you from getting sick’.

“The other argument that students respond really well to is the social justice argument.

“There is literature showing that there are kids down mines in the Congo pulling up the cobalt and lithium needed to create disposable vapes and students really dislike hearing that they have any part in that.”

Meanwhile, Mullin said it has been a rather difficult journey to get to this point.

“We’ve had to negotiate it slowly and we’ve had to gather data.

“It’s been a really long, difficult process, but as a result, we’ve got this really robust methodology and we’ve published papers capturing data and using the university as a living lab.”

One such “living lab” paper found that from July 2016 to February 2020, Trinity achieved a 79% reduction in smoking after it implemented a smoke-free campus policy.

Meanwhile, Mullin noted that when Trinity went through its six-year process to become smoke-free, there had been debate on whether people should be fined for smoking outside the three designated areas.

However, she said: “We’re all adults, so we request compliance and we offer support and stop vaping and smoking courses.

“We’re not enforcing but requesting compliance.”

**In today’s poll, we wanted to know: Do you think more public spaces should introduce vaping bans? You can take part in that poll, or see how others are voting, here.**