Alabama last SEC school without campus smoking ban

With The University of Alabama standing as the last SEC school without a smoking ban on campus, UA students are stepping up to voice their opinions on the matter. “The UA administration is evaluating a campuswide ban on smoking, based on input from constituents across campus,” Cathy Andreen, director of UA media relations, said.

For the past two years, UA students in the Student Government Association, Student Health Center groups and Smokefree UA have discussed their readiness to become a smoke-free campus and join the 1,178 campuses that have already passed a smoking or tobacco ban.

“SGA is not opposed to a smoke-free campus and would support any University policy that our student body feels might enhance their experience here,” Leela Foley, director of SGA media relations, said.

This year is the first time a petition for a smoke-free campus is being offered by the Tobacco Strategic Health Team, SHC Department of Health and Project Health. This gives students a voice to promote smoke-free awareness and support. Andreen said the current policy prohibits smoking in all campus buildings as well as 30 feet from building entrances.

“There are 45 million smokers in America, but 125 million people are impacted by secondhand smoke,” said Delynne Wilcox, assistant director of the the department of health promotion and wellness at the SHC. “Smoking is not one of those things that [is] limited to only the health risks of the smoker. It impacts people around them.”

The American Cancer Society created the Great American Smokeout in the 1970s to bring awareness to health complications related to smoking and tobacco use. Every year on the third Thursday of November, participating organizations hold events to connect people with various resources to encourage them to quit smoking.

Wilcox said the University has participated in the Great American Smokeout for more than 13 years. Project Health had a table in the Ferguson Center Nov. 21 to promote the national event and to offer the petition for students to sign.

“Ideally, it would be great if we had a smoke-free campus because it would be another environmental support for students on why not to smoke,” Wilcox said. “It would decrease the secondhand smoke complications as well.”

However, not all students on campus feel like smoking poses a threat to students on campus. “It doesn’t feel fair to tell people who smoke on the way to class that they can’t, but if everyone could be more courteous where they do it, then a lot of people would stop complaining,” Anna Neff, a sophomore majoring in advertising, said.

Graphic Warning Images On Cigarettes Reduce Smoking Among Young Adults

Recently in the USA there was made a new study on the effects of graphic health warning labels. The study was performed by Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Legacy and supported by FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The results of the study

Will Smoking be Banned in Single-Family Homes?

Jesse Arreguin, the Councilman of Berkeley City, proposed to prohibit smoking in single-family homes. In her turn, Susan Wengraf, the Councilwoman, was appalled as she supports the proposal to prohibit smoking in multiunit homes. The major aim is to protect people living in multiunit buildings from secondhand smoke that is considered to have negative effects

College Students Feel Pull of Cigarette Ads, Study Finds

The influence of just one cigarette ad can last for seven days and increases the risk of smoking among college students, according to a new study.

Over three weeks, 134 students, aged 18 to 24, in Pittsburgh documented their exposure to cigarettes ads and other pro-smoking media messages. This included seeing positive depictions of smoking in movies, for example, the researchers noted.

The students, who included both smokers and nonsmokers, also recorded how these exposures affected their smoking intentions and ability to refuse cigarettes.

Immediately after seeing a cigarette ad or other pro-smoking media message, the students' smoking intentions rose by an average of 22 percent, the study found. Although their smoking intentions decreased with each passing day, they remained elevated for seven days.

All of the students said they were exposed to numerous smoking ads and pro-smoking media message multiple times during the three-week study. In total, the students reported more than 1,000 such exposures, according to the findings published online Nov. 18 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"We were surprised how long the influence of pro-smoking messages lasted," study co-author Steven Martino, a psychologist at the RAND Corporation, said in a news release from the nonprofit research organization. "The results suggest that positive media messages about smoking are likely to influence behavior even if opportunities to smoke occur infrequently," he noted.

"Our findings suggest that exposures that occur before the influence of a prior message 'wears off' could cause the risk of smoking to accumulate over the long term. This might explain why exposure to these media messages can have an enduring effect on people's attitudes and behaviors toward smoking," Martino explained.

He and his colleagues noted that the study results have important implications for policies that limit tobacco advertising and other efforts meant to reduce youth tobacco use.

Cigarette ads are banned from television and radio in the United States, but are still allowed at places where tobacco is sold, in newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet.

Children in the UK Call for Smoke-Free Footpaths

In the UK smoking is prohibited in most public places including concert halls, pubs and parts of sports grounds. Now kids want smoking to be banned on the footpaths they use to get to school. Pupils from Yeo Moor Primary School in Clevedon are discussing with authoroties and teachers the possibility to introduce a bylaw

Wythe County apartments going smoke-free

Longview and Longview Village Apartments are scheduled to go smoke-free on Jan. 1, 2014, along with a total of 246 properties managed by Partnership Property Management (PPM) of Greensboro.

“Smoke-free housing is an industry trend, and one that can save both lives and money,” said Rick Allen, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of PPM.

“The best way to protect our property and our residents from secondhand smoke and the risk of fire is to stop allowing smoking in our buildings.”
PPM manages properties in five states. Residents were notified starting in April of 2013 to prepare for the change.

“We have shared, and will continue to share, information and free resources to help any of our employees and residents quit smoking who would like to.” Allen said. “I’m pleased to say that many are looking at the new policy as an opportunity to adopt a healthier lifestyle.”

According to Allen, the costs of allowing smoking in a multi-unit building are well-known.

A smoking unit costs much more than a non-smoking unit does to prepare for a new tenant. And one fire caused by smoking materials can destroy large amounts of property and threaten the safety of residents, as well as employees and firefighters.

Other costs include dealing with complaints about drifting smoke, which is more than a nuisance to others, as secondhand smoke has been shown by studies to cause cancer, heart attacks and asthma attacks in nonsmokers.

“Our residents are the heart of our company,” Allen said. “We want to protect their health as well as the health and future of our properties.”

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College District to Ban Smoking on Campus

Coast Community College District wants to introduce smoking ban at its three campuses and asks its students and college staff for theirr opinion on the subject. The smoking ban to be voted in spring 2014 and it would touch such colleges as Golden West in Huntington Beach, Orange Coast in Costa Mesa and Coastline, which