By Cody Daniels/reporter
More than 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily worldwide. A third of all college students between 18 and 24 frequently use tobacco, and a staggering 45 percent have used it in the past year, according to the Division of General Medicine’s National Survey of Massachusetts General Hospital.
The state of most American college campuses indicates something more needs to be done to fight student tobacco use. Students especially can try harder and do more to save lives from tobacco’s hidden and harmful effects. Campus groups could sponsor competitions to see which willing smokers can quit fastest.
One-tenth of the adult students smoking will die from a smoking-related disease. Students who go outside one of TCC’s campuses for a walk and a little fresh air in between classes might be surprised.
Non-smokers might realize the smoking happening on campus might be affecting them more than they think.
Some students ignore the college’s ban on tobacco use and “smoke away their cares,” unconcerned that they’re actually providing themselves extra problems.
The chemicals found in secondhand smoke can be as harmful, if not more harmful, than that of the smoke inhaled through cigarettes, according to studies.
We need campus organizations willing to fight back by providing something similar to an AA sponsor, providing scary stats like these and throwing this problem into the faces of people who choose to turn the other way.
So why is it that so many young students supposedly in their prime of life decide to ignore the law and weigh themselves down with the more than 3,000 carcinogens found in a cigarette? Many student smokers feel a sense of protection or invincibility, and others say they’d rather live shorter lives with the anxiety-relief cigarettes provide.
Smoking is an epidemic that can be stopped starting at the student level of society.
Bottom line: You’re not invincible. Smoking really does kill, and odds are it eventually will kill you.
