Tobacco Use in College Students

Reaction/Reflection

For our first reflection piece, I chose to write about tobacco use. During lecture, we spoke about patterns and statistics associated with tobacco use.  During the discussion, we learned about the profile of a typical smoker. Smokers are more likely to be male than female and young people are more likely to use tobacco than older people. And to me the most shocking statistic was that college students are more likely to smoke than the general population, specifically 1 in 3 young people smoke.  I thought this was surprising because I expected with more education, people would be less likely to participate in risky behavior especially smoking because we know how harmful tobacco is. Nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar are all known to cause serious health issues in smokers such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and emphysema. I was aware that a significant amount of young adults were smokers but I anticipated tobacco use to be more prevalent among older generations because they did not have the same information that our generation has today about the negative health effects. As a college student these statistics impact my daily life because I am a member of the population who is most likely to smoke. I am not a smoker but I am exposed to second hand smoke most days as a walk through campus. The regular exposure will ultimately have adverse effects on my health and although I can actively try to avoid smokers, sometimes I don’t have the option to get away from someone who is smoking. Public health aims to prevent poor health and improve the health of populations. The benefits of quitting smoking are immediate and satisfy the public health goal of taking preventive measures rather than treatment like clinical health and will ultimately improve the quality of life. Smoking in college students affects the entire population, both those who are smokers and those who are not and is classified as a public health issue. Aside from the health issues that smokers must face, people who live and study in an environment where smoking is common will also have consequences. Public health measures such as smoking policies and laws can be used to implement better health practices for both smokers and non-smokers. I am curious, is smoking in college students is only a phase and they stop once they graduate?  Also are there campaigns that specifically target the issue of smoking in college students since this population is more likely to smoke than the general population?

Eva Russo, Will Hedgpeth, and Klade Harmon