University health educators want students to know that smoking kills.
Student peer health experts are taking information about tobacco’s harmful effects to the streets today for the American Cancer Society’s annual Great American Smokeout, urging students to control tobacco’s role in their lives and to quit.
“It is the No. 1 preventable cause of death,” said University health educator Ramah Leith, who has helped organize the week’s events for five years. “We want our students to be healthy.”
Peer health educators, one dressed in a hand-made cigarette costume, are scheduled to travel through campus this afternoon, handing out packets of information about tobacco awareness and medical bracelets upon which students can write the name of someone they know who currently smokes or of someone who died from smoking, Leith said.
It’s a way to remember the 438,000 people who die annually from cigarette smoking, she said.
Educators will also have a booth on campus with displays about the health effects of smoking tobacco from hookahs and about the environmental effects of tobacco.
“It’s not like smokers are bad,” said Paula Staight, director of health education at the University. “We are looking from a public health perspective. I always found it interesting that a prescription drug is pulled off the shelves after someone dies,” but not cigarettes.
College-age individuals are the largest demographic of smokers in the U.S. and account for nearly one-fourth of all tobacco users, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We hope this day will prevent students from experimenting with nicotine,” Staight said.
The anti-smoking week also includes activities designed to help students quit.
The Health Center, along with licensed acupuncturist Tom Williams began offering acupuncture treatment to combat nicotine addiction Wednesday evening. The sessions tonight and Friday will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Turning Point Natural Health Center, located at 670 E. 18th Avenue.
Acupuncture helps people quit smoking because it quickly detoxifies the body from nicotine toxins by stimulating the lungs, kidneys and liver, Williams said.
“It has a very strong relaxing effect on the central nervous system,” Williams said. “It seems there’s an underlying anxiety that drives any sort of addictive behavior… (Acupuncture) in turn helps reduce craving.”
Acupuncture sessions with Williams typically cost $70 each, but this week students may pay a $30 donation for three sessions to benefit the American Lung Association.
Last week, a group collected cigarette butts in a glass jar in front of the Knight Library. The jar sits on the Health Resource Center’s tobacco information table this week, and the person who estimates the number of butts wins a $50 gift certificate to the University Bookstore.
Staight said she wants to see the University adopt a smoke-free policy, following the trend of several other universities nationwide.
“Public places have smoke-free parks,” Staight said. “It doesn’t sound so radical. It’s based on public health, not my individual vendetta.”
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