As a society, more education and has circulated to inform individuals of the negative effects of smoking. Why is it then, that people continue to smoke?
Laws have been established to diminish advertisements from promoting the health side effects of smoking. However, 8.8 billion dollars are still being spent on marketing for tobacco companies.
According to TheTruth.com death from smoking has decreased significantly. The Truth campaign works to end smoking and is targeted to the youth. One possible reason behind this is that, according to TheTruth.com, nearly 94 percent of people will try cigarettes before the age of 20.
The results of this campaign have obvious benefits. Since the year 1964, the number of people dying from tobacco related illnesses has dropped from 20 million to about 6 million in the United States today.
Susan Fitzgerald, RN, BSN and director of student health services on campus, thinks that there is a social stigma associated with smoking that is new with our generation.
According to Fitzgerald, smoking can be developed from patterns we have in our normal life. Students run a dangerous risk if they only smoke in a social environments to become an everyday smoker. Fitzgerald also argues the myth about college students smoking to relieve their school related stress.
“Nicotine is a stimulant and is out of your system in two days. Smoking is more of a psychological addiction.” Fitzgerald said. Talking a walk, cooking a meal or mediating are some alternatives to relieve stress in a healthy way.
Fitzgerald would like Cabrini to be smoke free. This could best be achieved with a student-encouraged movement to make our campus smoke free.
A smoker who spends around 20 dollars on cigarettes a week for five years would have spent around 5,200 dollars on cigarettes. This is a large cost to college students who have many other expenses.
Cheyenne Irizarry, psychology major and social work minor, does not have to worry about spending money on cigarettes because she does not smoke. No one in Irizarry’s family is a smoker and she doesn’t allow herself to be exposed to smokers.
“Cigarette smoke just bothers me. Whenever my friends are smoking I make sure they don’t do it around me.”
She says that everyone knows that smoking is unhealthy but it is their life and their choice if they want to do it. Irizarry also talked about the issues of smoking around campus. “It’s annoying when I’m walking into Founders and I have to walk by cigarette smoke.”
@lillianmhurley
