Campus Smokeout

While there is good news about youth and adult smoking – both are on the decline – tobacco use among college students is on the rise. That’s why this year’s Great American Smokeout, the 28th iteration of which takes place today, focuses on curbing smoking on campus.

Nationally, about 22 percent of the adult population smokes, down from 42 percent in 1965. More than 28 percent of college students smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That’s a 30 percent increase since 1993.

Gustavo Burkett, a graduate assistant with Substance Abuse Prevention Services at the University of Maine, himself a former smoker, attributes the rise to freedom and peer pressure. Free of their parents, students (even those who touted an anti-tobacco message in their youth) experiment at college. This leads many to smoke for the first time. When they see many around them doing the same, they stick with the habit. Oddly, surveys have found that college students think 90 percent of their peers smoke. This is three times as many as really do. Many smoke only on weekends at parties when they also drink, so they don’t consider themselves to be “full-time” smokers.

An odd contradiction Mr. Burkett has found is that many students he encounters at UMaine who smoke are health conscious. This presents an opportunity for smoking-cessation advocates to point out that smoking is the worst thing you can do for your health. Tobacco is responsible for 440,000 deaths a year nationally. Smoking accounts for one-third of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths.

Another misperception is that smokeless tobacco is safer than cigarettes. It is not.

Based on this information, the University of Maine this fall completed the process of making all its residence halls nonsmoking. It also stopped selling tobacco products in the bookstore. Eastern Maine Community College had already taken these steps.

Both campuses, and others around the state, will hold events to encourage students to stop smoking. An important first step is to call the state’s tobacco help line (1-800-207-1230). Those who call will be contacted by a trained counselor who will help develop a quitting plan and timetable. A packet of materials and additional phone calls will follow.

Thanks to the state’s use of tobacco settlement funds, those who wish may get a prescription for free smoking cessation patches or gum to assist them. Nearly a quarter of the people who have called the help line were not smoking six months later.

Whether you’re in college or well beyond, this is a good day to quit smoking.