Smoking awareness groups host 'Great American Smoke Out'

Ashley Slovinski

Issue date: 11/20/07 Section: News

The Great American Smoke Out, sponsored annually by the American Cancer Society, was held on Nov. 15. The Wellness Center set up a table in Damen Hall on Wednesday and another table in CFSU on Thursday to encourage smokers to pledge to quit for the day. Colleges Against Cancer also set up its own table for the event on Thursday in CFSU.

According to the American Cancer Society Web site, the first Great American Smoke Out was held in California on Nov. 18, 1976, when the California Division of the American Cancer Society "successfully prompted nearly 1 million smokers to quit for the day." The event went national in 1977 and is now held every year on the third Thursday in November.

November is National Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

"The Great American Smoke Out is meant for the whole country to come together to think about quitting smoking," said Alissa Eischens, health educator for the Wellness Center and adviser to the Wellness Advocates, which ran the tables in Damen and CFSU.

The Wellness Advocates have been organizing The Great American Smoke Out for three years and Colleges Against Cancer has been around four years. Both groups encourage students to pledge to quit smoking for the day, hoping that it will ultimately cause them to think about quitting entirely.

"We're being realistic," Wellness Advocate Liz Tuminello said. "We would like to make a large impact ideally, but we don't expect to make a huge impact in people's lives. Quitting is a series of steps, and we want to get people to move to that next step.

"If they're not thinking about quitting already we want to at least get them to think about it," she said. "The main goal is to raise awareness."

The Wellness Advocates tried to educate students this year by offering an array of literature on ways to quit smoking, reasons to think about quitting, information for nonsmokers about Smoke Free Illinois and information on the effects of secondhand smoke. Members also handed out "quit kits" with spearmint gum, bendies (rubber ropes smokers can use to occupy their hands), "I Quit" wristbands and a reflection sheet on the decision to quit.

Those pledging to quit for the day and nonsmokers pledging to support someone to quit signed a banner that will be hung in CFSU the week after Thanksgiving break.

Pledges were also able to sign up for a raffle to win $50 from Beck's Books and the members gave away a free Chipotle burrito to the first 20 smokers who pledged. The Colleges Against Cancer table handed out similar pamphlets as well as "Smoke Free Illinois" buttons and cupcakes to those pledging to quit.

"I don't think people really think about the direct effects of smoking this young," said Lauren Harriet, a member of Colleges Against Cancer. "So it's good to educate people early on. While lung cancer is one of the bigger cancers, you don't really think about it as much."

Although there are smokers at Loyola, one of the biggest misperceptions is the number of students that actually smoke on a daily basis.

"People think a lot more students smoke than really do," Eischens said. "Many smokers clump together so it looks like a lot more do. The reality is that a lot of students do not smoke here."

According to the National College Health Assessment taken last spring, 60 percent of Loyola students had never smoked in their life and only 25 percent had smoked in the last month.

According to Eischens, this shows only a small percent of actual daily smokers on campus.

Even a small percent of smokers, however, is of concern to health educators such as Eischens. "I don't think there is any safe level of smoking. Anybody who does should consider quitting because of health risks. One smoker is too many."

Freshman Heather Lanning said, "It's my body and my decision so others shouldn't be concerned." But health educators like Eischens are also concerned about the effects of secondhand smoke on those who do not choose to smoke.

"You have the right to do what you want as long as it only affects you," Eischens said. "But when it affects others you now have a responsibility."

Colleges Against Cancer president Megan Cikara agreed, saying, "If you choose to smoke, that's fine, you're not a bad person. You just need to be respectful of those who don't smoke. Move away from the doors. Be courteous with other people and your surroundings. Make it a choice to smoke, but do not abuse the right to smoke."

The smokers interviewed agreed that they should be respectful of those choosing not to smoke but that nonsmokers should respect their choice as well. "I'll respect other people. I'll go outside, but don't complain [if] I'm outside then," Lanning said.

"When I walk with a cigarette [on campus] I feel self-conscious," sophomore Jessica Levin said. "People look at you like 'oh, she's a smoker.' But that's not really who I am. Yeah, I'm a smoker, but there's this negative aspect to it."

Levin is a student who began smoking in college.

"I started smoking the end of freshman year because one of my best friends and my boyfriend smoked so I was always around it," Levin said. "It started as a social thing, and I would even quit when I would go home for breaks. But now I smoke more and don't rely on friends to go outside and have a cigarette."

A "sad trend" Eischens says is that the number of students who start smoking in college is increasing.

Some smokers claim that they smoke more at school because "it's a social thing and also a big thing when you drink." Others said that they smoke mostly due to stress.

"I've always thought about quitting," Lanning said, "but it's [a] big struggle to quit, especially in college when stress is at its peak."

"Smoking is so powerful - not only is nicotine addictive, but smoking becomes part of a person's life," Eischens said. "It's an activity people enjoy. It's a social activity and becomes part of their daily routine. It's an activity [that is] very hard to give up."

Eischens looks forward to the Illinois ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and other public workplaces on Jan. 1, 2008. The Smoke Free Illinois Act was passed by both Illinois state houses in May 2007 and signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in July.

"Smoke Free Illinois has two benefits," she said. "It will reduce secondhand smoke for both patrons and employers of these places. But ultimately [smokers] have to decide if there are more reasons not to smoke than to smoke. The ban gives one more reason. So I think that's a positive thing."

Ultimately the decision to quit smoking is the individual's. Eischens wants smokers to know, however, that there is always smoking cessation on campus for those wanting to quit.

"The important thing to remember is that there is not just one special day to quit smoking," she said. "You can quit any day of the year."

For more information on smoking and smoking related health risks, students can visit the Wellness Center Web site at: www.luc.edu/wellness.

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