Vote coming on Ohio colleges smoking ban

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio higher education officials plan a vote Monday urging the state's public campuses to ban tobacco use.

That would include Ohio State, one of the nation's largest universities, which currently bans only indoor smoking.

Bans on the use, advertising and sales of tobacco in all its forms are being enacted or considered at perhaps half of campuses nationwide, sometimes over the objections of student smokers, staff and faculty.

The group Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights says campus tobacco bans have risen from virtually zero a decade ago to 711 today. That includes both four-year and two-year institutions, both public and private.

Officials from the Cleveland Clinic, the state Department of Health and the Ohio Board of Regents plan a discussion of the tobacco free resolution before Monday's vote.