Victor DeNoble found a drug to replace nicotine in cigarettes that wouldn't cause heart disease and was fired for making the discovery.
Philip Morris USA asked DeNoble to make the discovery, but fired him because the company didn't want to make a safe cigarette, he said.
DeNoble brought the information he discovered to Congress and in January 1994 Philip Morris USA, as well as the other leading tobacco distributors, were fined $700 billion. The companies could no longer advertise on billboards and cigarettes could not appear in cartoons or shows directed towards young children, DeNoble said.
DeNoble's discovery gives support to people advocating smoke-free states, cities and institutions like Ball State University.
His presentation Wednesday night, sponsored by Smoke Free Indiana, kicked off a campaign to ban smoking at Ball State. The campaign was organized by a Business Fellows team to get students to sign a petition supporting a smoke-free campus. The team is also recruiting student organizations to support its cause.
"It is not easy to convince someone they need to quit smoking," DeNoble said. "They decided to become a drug addict and they have to decide they want to quit."
Today is smoke-out day on campus, and smokers are encouraged to quit a day and hopefully take a step towards giving up cigarettes, Susan Clark, instructor of physiology and health science and faculty leader for the Business Fellows team, said. Students will also be at the Scramble Light from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. handing out T-shirts, petitions and smoking cessation class sign-up sheets.
The Business Fellows team has also spent two days picking up cigarette butts around campus, she said.
"People don't realize that smoking is a drug addiction. Calling it a habit is the wrong word to use. Those people have been changed," DeNoble said.
While some people, like those in the Business Fellows group, want to ban smoking, others don't intend to quit or don't mind people smoking. Freshman and nonsmoker Angela Rorick said she really doesn't care if people smoke on the Ball State campus.
Others, like freshman and nonsmoker Jena Shepler, said she is glad people have to smoke outside, even though she doesn't like dealing with second-hand smoke from people standing by building entrances.
"I like it the way it is, if they want to smoke they go outside," she said. "I just don't like it when there are a bunch of people standing in front of the door smoking and I have to go through them to get into the building."
Freshman and smoker Stefanie Ditton said smokers would probably protest a ban, and if the campus became smoke free they might transfer to another university.
"I think considering the ratio of smokers and nonsmokers on campus it wouldn't happen," freshman and smoker Rebekah Dudeck said.
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