The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict between one-third to half of all smokers will die from their addiction, which suggests that 640 to 960 current University of Idaho students will die prematurely because of tobacco.
To address this health concern, a group of four students in a senior movement science course are working on a project called Tobacco Free 4 U and I. The goal of the project is to have UI join 1,129 other universities, including all other Idaho universities, in adopting a smoke-free campus policy. The group is made up of Daniel Trautvetter, Cody Green, Chase Krohn and Blake Anderson.
Trautvetter said a survey they conducted last December found that 62 percent of students, faculty and staff support a smoke-free campus policy. Results from a survey included in the most recent ASUI ballot indicate that 47 percent of students favor a smoking ban while 40 percent favored no change in policy. Fourteen percent of students favored a no tobacco policy.
ASUI senator Sadie Grossbaum and senate pro tempore Allie Fuller are working to get the senate’s support for a tobacco policy. Next week the senate will vote on resolution S13-04 encouraging the faculty senate and UI administration to revise the current tobacco policy. Faculty Senate Chair Kenton Bird said the faculty senate will not hear the issue until next semester.
Trautvetter said they are trying to present the issue as the non-smoker’s right to breathe clean air and to a clean campus, rather than an attack on smokers.
“Our main impact is promoting cessation, 99 percent of people who smoke start between 18 and 24, so preventing initiation of tobacco use is the most effective policy,” Trautvetter said. “Secondhand smoke is a Class A carcinogen, it has been known to kill people, cause asthma attacks. So it goes back to protecting our health. Litter is also another big issue. Facilities estimates that it costs them five cents per cigarette butt that they pick up, and I’m sure they spend a majority of their time on it.”
He said a lot of comments from the survey suggested that designated smoking areas would find a lot of support from students, but it would be difficult to effectively implement.
“A lot of comments on the survey came back with wanting designated areas, but when looking at practice models from other universities it wasn’t effective,” Trautvetter said. “Having a complete smoke-free campus would promote cessation to our students. Not to mention there is still secondhand smoke with designated areas.”
Trautvetter said he and another student were invited to speak at a tobacco conference for the Fresh Air Campus Challenge at Portland State University, where they learned how other universities had implemented smoke-free policies successfully.
“Every university that had an effective plan did a two-year implementation plan,” Trautvetter said. “In that two years, they raised awareness of the plan, promoted education for tobacco cessation, cessation programs and proper signage on campus.”
Shannon Haselhuhn, UI health education director, said she thinks the two-year implementation program is important to get the university on board with cessation programs and to set plans for the program.
Assistant clinical professor in exercise science and health Helen Brown mentioned the Affordable Care Act’s impact on cessation programming at UI.
“The ACA mandates that employers with more than 50 employees offer tobacco cessation programs,” Brown said. “The university will have to be looking at that closely for faculty and staff. The hope is that during the two year implementation program cessation will be looked at broadly for students, faculty and staff.”
Trautvetter said a lot of people who took the survey said there was no way the policy could be enforced.
“Other universities have found that enforcement is not needed with proper education and signage on campus,” Trautvetter said. “Most enforcement is peer to peer.”
Brown said there would be maps drawn designating where land is private or public. Trautvetter said that most Greek Houses are on private land, meaning the university can’t designate them as non-smoking.
Trautvetter, Brown and Haselhuhn all said the goal of a smoking ban was to promote health on campus through cessation.
“Something like 70 percent of smokers are trying to quit,” Brown said.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected].