2C - Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily~o

2C - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michiciandailycom


'' tgo smoke free in 2011

By NICOLE ABER nonsmokers," he added.
Daily Staff Reporter According to a presa release
on the policy, about 14 percent of
APRIL 20, 2009 - All three Uni- University employees are smokers.
versity campuseswill be smoke free A 2006 survey found that about
when a new policy announced by 16 percent of University students
University administrators yester- smoke one or more cigarettes a
day takes effect on July 1, 2011. month, according to Winfield.
The initiative is meant to reduce There will be five subcommit-
the healthrisks associated with sec- tees - one each for students, com-
ondhand smoke and reduce health munity relations, faculty and staff,
costs associated with smoking. communications and grounds and
"A healthier, smoke-free physical facilities - working to create the
environment will only enhance the best way to implement the policy,
intellectual vigor of our campuses," Winfield said.
University President Mary Sue In order to help smokers transi-
Coleman wrote in an campus-wide tion into a community with this
e-mail yesterday. "Our decision new policy, the University will
to become smoke-free aligns per- offer free behavioral counseling
fectly with the goals of MHealthy and discounts on over-the-counter
to improve the health of our com- smokingcessation products for stu-
munity." dents, faculty and staff. University
University Chief Health Officer employees will also have reduced
Robert Winfield and School of Pub- co-pays on prescription cessation
lic Health Dean Kenneth Warner products, Winfield said.
will co-chair the Smoke Free Uni- In the fall of 2010, Winfield said
versity Steering Committee, which the committee will bring the pro-
is charged with creating a dialogue posed policy before University
on campus about the policy in order administrators for an official review.
to get input from students, faculty Butuntilthat point,Winfield said
and staff. there are still several questions as to
In an interview with The Michi- how the policy will be implemented
gan Daily, Winfield said the policy to create a smooth transition for all
is aimed at reducing secondhand members of the University com-
smoke around campus in order to munity. Because this plan is still in
improve the overall health of the the developmental stages, Winfield
University community. said it is important to getinput from
"Certainly irritation of second- many different groups on campus,
hand smoke is an issue and what's as well as from other private com-
also important is doing the right panies that neighbor University
thing for the health of the commu- property.
nity," Winfield said. "What we want to do is hear from
According to Winfield, another people about how we can get from
major reason for implementing here to our goal, and what that goal
r the policy is to decrease the cost will look like in terms of impact on
of health care for University fac- people," Winfield said.
ulty and staff. Within five years of Winfield brought up various
implementing such a policy, Win- challenges that may arise with the
field said health care costs usually implementation of such a policy,
start to decline. including how to deal with smok-
"We learned that the health care ing at football game tailgates, near
costs are at least $2,000 more per performing arts centers and on the
year for people who smoke than for University golf course, in which

'U' researchers
develop artificial
bone marrow

Robert Winfield, the University's chief health officer, speaks at the SACUA meeting
on Monday, April 20, 2009. Winfield will co-chair the Smoke Free University Steer-
ing Committee.

guests of the University are often
present.
Winfield discussed the policy
with members of the Senate Adviso-
ry Committee on University Affairs
at its meeting yesterday, and said
another concern is how to handle
potential apprehensions of inter-
national students who may come
from countries in which smoking is
an intricate part of their culture or
national tradition.
The University's Department
of Public Safety will not give out
tickets for violations of the policy,
Winfield said, but specific reper-
cussions for disobeying the policy
are being discussed. There will also
be changes made to the Statement
of the Student Rights and Responsi-
bilities Handbook to reflect the new
policy, he said.
Winfield said he expects there
will be some dissent regarding
the policy, but that in two years
time, most of the dialogue will be
exhausted.
"I think most smokers under-
stand that over the years their
behavior is not conducive to non-
smokers, and I suspect that those
smokers have come to grips with

this to some degree," he said.
Similar policies have already
been implemented on more than
260 college campuses across the
country, including the Univer-
sity of California at San Francisco,
Indiana University and the Univer-
sity of Iowa, according to the press
release.
Karen Whitney, chair of the
Indiana University Purdue Univer-
sity Indianapolis Smoking Policy,
said the tobacco-free policy was
well received by members of the
university community when it was
implemented in August 2006.
Whitney, IUPUI's dean of stu-
dents, said the smoke-free policy's
compliance with the university's
mission as a health and life sciences
campus has allowed the university
to be highly successful in its imple-
mentation of the regulation.
"It has significantly reduced
smoking on university property,"
Whitney said. "It has changed and
reformed the campus. It is now
considered unacceptable to smoke
on campus."
Whitney said while the policy
has improved the air quality on
campus, there is no evidence that it
has reduced the cost of health care
for its faculty and staff.
See SMOKE FREE, Page 7C

By AMY MUNSLOW
Daily StaffReporter
JANUARY 15, 2009 - A
collaborative effort between
researchers at the University
of Texas Medical Branch and
the University of Michigan was
the first to successfully produce
functional artificial bone marrow,
paving the way for future research
on human reactions to new drugs.
The venture - a joint effort
between a University of Michigan
biomedical engineering professor
and two researchers from the
University of Texas Medical
Branch - took seven years to
complete and was funded by
Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency.
The project is currently being
used asa model to test the human
immune system's response to
new drugs.
Joan Nichols, one of the UTMB
researchers, said the artificial
bone marrow system is a step
forward for drug testing because
it provides a far more accurate
response than tests on bone
marrow from mice or rats. She
added that further possibilities
for potential uses of the artificial
bone marrow are endless.
"It will help scientists that
designvaccines totreatinfections
or environmental exposure to
chemicals that cause leukemia
or other diseases," Nichols said.
"It could even be used to test the
immune response to cosmetics or
foods."
For the project, Kotov created a
matrix that mimics the tissues that
support bone marrow in a human
body. Using this matrix, artificially
produced bone marrow can live at
least sixmontis.
Nichols and Joaquin Cortiella,

the other UTMB researcher,
created the artificial bone marrow
to grow in Kotov's matrix.
Kotov said that additional uses
for the artificial bone marrow
include the possibility that it
could allow for new research
on chemotherapy drugs. Many
chemotherapy drugs limit bone
marrow function, leaving the
body vulnerable to infection.
The artificial bone marrow can
be used to test these drugs more
effectively, Kotov said.
"More thorough and less
expensive studies give a better
chance that some dangerous side
effects can be caught in time," he
said in an e-mail interview. "This
is much needed both for patients
and pharmaceutical companies."
Currently the artificial bone
marrow can't be transplanted
into humans, but with continued
research,bonemarrow transplants
may be within reach, Nichols said.
"In terms of use in people we
are a long way from clinical use,
because it takes a great deal of
money to test systems like this
before you move to human trials,"
she said.
Nichols added that the
accomplishment is an achievement
of teamwork and persistence.
"It took all of us together, and
we failed a lot in the first three to
four years of our work together,
but we always banded together
and tried again," she said.
Kotov said the development
is not only an achievement in
biomedical research, but it will
also help to revitalize the state's
economy.
"We are trying to re-energize
the biotechnology sector of
economy in Michigan and to bring
new ideas to the industry in the
difficult economic times," he said.

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