The highly-publicized health risks and the obvious effects on a person's appearance have done nothing to deter the many college students who crowd outside the university buildings from smoking daily and littering the ground with cigarette butts.
A 1999 study conducted by Nancy Rigotti, M.D., Jae Eun Lee, Ph.D. and Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., found that college is a critical time when students are in danger of developing life-long nicotine dependence.
The national study showed that out of 14,138 randomly sampled students, about 50 percent had used a tobacco product in the past year and one-third currently used tobacco products.
A study conducted the previous year by the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 15,000 students and concluded that smoking among American college students has substantially increased since 1993, when a similar survey was conducted.
The research, printed in the Nov. 18, 1998 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, states that in 1997, 28 percent of college students said they had used tobacco products in the past month, compared to only 22 percent four years earlier. These results were found to be independent of age, gender, race and the college's location.
According to the data, cigarette smoking among college students decreased in the 1970s and 1980s and remained steady until 1990 when the rate began to rise. The survey attributed this increase to a 32 percent rise in smoking by high school students who continued to smoke when they went to college.
Although researchers have no concrete evidence as to why there was such a significant increase in smoking for high school students, they believe that it is a consequence of tobacco companies' advertising geared toward that age group.
Nicotine addiction remains a controversial issue among researchers, especially those who focus on more heavily addictive drugs such as heroine and cocaine. Still, long-term health threats such as lung and mouth cancer and emphysema are undeniably results of smoking.
Another health risk related to smoking comes from secondhand smoke. The Environmental Protection Agency warns that secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 substances, including over forty which have been known to cause cancer in humans and animals.
Health risks aside, smoking often causes physically unappealing effects that have led some students to kick the habit. Bad breath, yellow teeth and stained fingertips are just some of the unpleasantries associated with smoking.
"I just quit smoking about five months ago and I noticed that my car smells a lot better and so do my clothes. I feel a lot more motivated to do stuff," said Brent Minet, a local blues musician and student.
"I don't smoke in the house, but I do smoke in my car and I always have to clean the windshield frequently," said Laura Taber, a senior music education major at Buffalo State College. "It gets this sticky film on the glass that makes it harder to see out of."
Taber is also the owner of Karaoke Connection, a service that provides karaoke, and mentioned that her equipment suffers from nightly exposure in smoky bars.
"It really reeks when I unload it into my house and some of the wires accumulate that sticky filth, too," said Taber.
For students wishing to extinguish their butts, UB's Living Well Center is sponsoring the "Quit Smoking" workshop Monday Oct. 29, Nov. 5 and Nov. 12 from 6 to 7 p.m. in 145E Student Union.
Nurse Educator Mary Jo Berrettini will provide participants with information and strategies on how to successfully kick the nicotine addition.
