Mar 27, 2013 07:53 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Illinois state senate is expected to vote on the Smoke-Free Campus Act, a proposal that would ban smoking on the property of state-funded institutions, once the session re-opens April 10.

There will also not be any designated smoking areas.

The proposal aims to ban smoking in public university properties starting July 2014 and would require state institutions to create an organisation to supervise the public policy by Dec. 31, 2014.

However, the University of Illinois campuses have already considered smoking bans within the college premises. Chicago campus will ban smoking, starting July.

 "(The state law would) establish an outright prohibition at public universities. If the law were to be enacted, I think that the campuses would be already ahead of it in terms of implementing a policy like that," Thomas Hardy, University of Illinois system spokesman, said.

Paul Palian, Northern Illinois University spokesman, said that several other states such as Iowa, Arkansas and Oklahoma have implemented similar laws.

Palian also said that the reason for introducing a state law on smoking is to reduce the number of deaths caused by tobacco. It is estimated that tobacco is the cause of one in five deaths in the U.S.

Eric Jome, Illinois State University spokesman, said that the university has introduced some strict measures with respect to smoking. Apart from the campus, it is banned in quad areas and any large public area as well.

It was implemented following student surveys on health and student issues. The anti-smoking measures were very well received and the community members are urging to expand the ban to more areas.

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