Smoking On Campus

Today about four hundred thousands Americans die annually because of the health problem due to smoking. One and a half million people quit smoking a year, but more than fifty millions people keep on going. Tobacco contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive. Once you start smoking, it is very hard, but not impossible to quit. Smoking has several harmful effects on the body. People who smoke for a significant period of time will have problems with breathing and will most likely be in poor health. One out of four deaths of people from thirty-five to sixty-four years old result from smoking. Based on scientific research, every cigarette takes five and a half minutes of life away from a smoker. (American Cancer Society)

I see that there is a large amount of college students who are willing to light up a cigarette whenever they want to on the college campus. A previous study (released in August 2000) showed that rates of current (30-day) smoking among college students increased by more than one-fourth between 1993 and 1997 (from 22 to 28 percent) and

remained at the higher level in 1999. The researchers attribute this increase to an earlier rise in tobacco use among high school and middle school students, which reached historically high levels during the 1990s (Action on Smoking and Health). Many of them said that "I am not harming people around by smoking." They are totally wrong. They are actually harming other students around by releasing the smoke from their cigarettes, which contains an extraordinary amount of toxin, into the air. According to an article from Air Purifiers, "The smoke particles and chemicals in the air cause asthma attacks and allergic reactions to occur in many people." Also, for many years, there have been many organizations and governments that reported secondhand smoke is very harmful to nonsmokers. Each year, fifty three thousands people die from the effects of second-hand smoke. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that three thousands nonsmokers die each year from lung cancer obtained from being exposed to second-hand smoke (American Heart ). The American Heart Association says that thirty five thousands non-smokers die each year with heart problems associated with secondhand smoke. In California, there is law that bans smoking in several public places but not all of them. In addition, many college smokers are social smokers who only smoke more when they are around with their peers. "I went around my school and asked random friends who smoke why they do. Nine out of ten responded that it was simply peer pressure. I do not mean the clichйd after-school special, health video, public service announcement, "Hey man, everybody's doing it," type of peer pressure" (From a journal of Jamie Penn). After smoking, he said that he felt less stressed and more relaxed. Here we see that, smoking on campus not only causes health problem to nonsmokers but also creates an environment that force other smokers to smoke more. As a college student, I see that smoking on college campus is largely ignored. Therefore, there should be something to be done to reduce smoking on college campus.

Many smokers said that they are aware of the harm of smoking. But if you go out and ask as many regular smokers as you can if they read the Surgeon General warning "smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy" on the back of a pack of cigarettes, most of them will respond negatively. According to American Cancer Society, cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, which leads cause of cancer death among both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Cancers account for only about half of the deaths related to smoking. In addition, smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, effects on women's reproductive health which is associated with reduced fertility and a higher risk of miscarriage, infant death, and is a cause of low birth weight in infants. Here we see that most people have no knowledge about tobacco other than secondary information. They don't truly understand the danger that they are in and bring to other people around.

So the goal is established that how we can let college students have more knowledge about the truly risks of tobacco. Currently, many programs are existed to help students aware of the harm of smoking. According to Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council, Counteradvertising and public education campaigns have become standard elements of tobacco control. Counteradvertising campaigns can convey a variety of messages and can be aimed at different audiences. An evaluation of the California tobacco control program concluded that it was most effective in its early years. The Florida Pilot Program, funded by that state's tobacco settlement, created the edgy "Truth Campaign" and SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) program and during its first year, tobacco use among youths decreased dramatically. In addition, School-based tobacco prevention programs are also part of state tobacco control programs. The effectiveness of school-based programs varies. They are most effective when the message is delivered repeatedly and is taken as seriously and promoted as powerfully as are other forms of drug abuse education. The 1994 Institute of Medicine report Growing Up Tobacco Free noted the variable results of school-based programs but concluded that they should be part of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy because educating school-age children and adolescents about the consequences of tobacco use is clearly important to sustain a smoke-free norm. However, it seems that such programs are not doing the best to help students. For example, on campus talk shows about smoking don't help much because not many students are willing to attend the show or the Surgeon General warning that prints on every pack of cigarettes also doesn't work well because not every smoker read it, or even if they do they don't take it seriously. Then what is the best way to get college students to quit smoking? The main object is to create the awareness about the harm of smoking among American people from their childhood stages until they are grew up as an adult. Letting people know the effects of smoking before they start. This goal can be achieved if we do the following actions. I propose the government to open classes that show students the harm of smoking and how it affects other non-smokers around throughout the school system in the United States. These classes will be opened as a free course - no charge of money through out the school systems in the United States, and every student has to take the course in order to complete their degree or school years. In