Holyoke Smokers Miffed, Protest Cambridge Ban

Seven Holyoke Center employees who smoke aired concerns yesterday about their office's response to the two-week-old Cambridge ban on smoking in public places.

While significant numbers of Holyoke Center employees are angered by the building policy which relegates all smokers to two designated rooms in accord with the ban, many said they did not attend yesterday's meeting because they did not think it would lead to helpful reforms.

The seven smokers met with Jim Dezieck, coordinator of Health and Fitness at Harvard, to discuss "feelings of initial shock" caused by the ban, said Dorothy Dias, an accountant in the Office of Sponsored Research and one of the meeting's organizers.

The workers criticized the ban, saying that it has decreased their productivity, as they can no longer smoke at their desks, and created a dense smoky atmosphere in the designated areas. Employees who work after 5 p.m. and on weekends "are not coming in like they used to," because they can no longer smoke at their desks, employees said.

The meeting's organizers and Dezieck said Holyoke Center will probably not set up a lounge on each floor, which many workers have said would solve the problem of thick smoke and crowding in the two lounges. "We will work in the realistic realm now," Dezieck said.

Another meeting will be held next week to decide what specific reforms should be made, Dias said. The group will continue to meet on a short-term basis, she added.

Dezieck said he will "facilitate" the meetings, but leave it up to the workers who attend the meetings to decide how to solve the problems.

Irene Kelley, a cash manager at the Office of Sponsored Research, said she was "really surprised" that so few smokers attended the meeting.

Most smokers who did not attend the lunch-hour meeting said they were working or had forgotten about it, but probably would not have gone anyway.

This employee and her co-workers, who did not want to be named, said they were angry about the loss of productivity caused by the ban, but added that the problem "cannot be solved" by the committee.

"Why [go to the meeting]? You can't change a statute," said one worker.

Many smokers who work at Holyoke Center said yesterday that they are subject to "snide remarks" from non-smokers in their offices. "We get a guilty feeling [when we go to the smoking lounge]," said Kelley. "Everyone knows where you're going."

Some smokers said they did not attend yesterday's meeting because they are satisfied with the new ordinance.