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 University of Colorado-Boulder students prefer to date a non smoker. If the fact that smoking can cause serious health problems is not reason alone, this should be reason enough for people to make today the day to quit smoking.
Today marks the annual national event known as the 30th annual Great American Smokeout, in which the American Cancer Society urges people across the country to give up smoking for one day with the hopes that they will quit for good.
Locally, CU-Boulder's Student Wellness Program at the Wardenburg Health Center is hosting the Smokeout on campus with informational tables and free
quit kits available across the CU campus from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to encourage students to kick the habit.
The Boulder County Public Health Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership is sponsoring the Smokeout throughout Boulder County today with quit kits and a free quit hotline to offer individual support.
“We hope individuals understand that one of the most important things that they can do for their health is to quit nicotine,” said Molly Hanson, a community health specialist with the Tobacco Education and Prevention
Partnership. “We want people to understand that there are free and low-cost resources out there and we hope they access those resources so they will quit nicotine for life.”
Because the 18- to 24-year-old age bracket has a higher smoking rate than any other group, major tobacco companies target college students and CU's Student Wellness Program is working to see students quit despite the pressure from both tobacco companies and the college party atmosphere.
In the surrounding Boulder community, there are about 17 percent of adults 18 and over who smoke while the CU campus has 24 percent of its students who
smoke. Yet, only 6 percent of CU students say they are daily smokers, according to surveys from the Student Wellness Center, said Robin Kolble, Community Health Education Department manager and tobacco cessation counselor at CU.
“I think a big issue at CU is that at the college level, students often just smoke when they are partying,” Kolble said. “They'll smoke Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then they won't smoke for the rest of the week.
This can go on for quite a while but eventually those people will become regular smokers.”
Kolble said many students who smoke socially or not as frequently as every day oftentimes do not even consider themselves smokers.
“A lot of people have this misconception that everybody smokes, so they can too. But everybody does not smoke,” Kolble said. “If you flip the statistic,
76 percent of students chose not to smoke at all. We only have 6 percent that smoke every single day.”
The Wellness Center is hosting a “quit and win” contest this month, in which a student who gives up smoking for one month will be announced today and will win a gift certificate for STA Travel for their efforts in quitting.
Bradley Frye, a CU-Boulder psychology senior and “quit and win” contestant, has been smoking since he was in middle school and has quit before and started again but he said this time he is quitting for good.
“Quitting smoking is a difficult process in general, but having these services and people helping you makes it a lot easier,” said Frye, who heard about the contest after taking advantage of the free counseling services
with Kolble to quit smoking.
Kolble said she encourages students to quit smoking now while they are young so they do not have more serious health problems in the future.
“I want students to know that there is help on campus. It's an addiction and I think people can stop whenever they want but it's hard,” Kolble said. “As our fliers say, nicotine is more difficult to quit than alcohol, cocaine or heroin.
With something this hard, people need support to quit, and there is that support.”
Quitting isn't easy and Kolble knows first-hand. She was a smoker for six years, quit, started again, and quit again for life - something that allows her to make a true connection with students who want to quit, she said.
“I know exactly how it feels because I can still remember how tough it was, even though it has been a long time,” Kolble said.
For those interested in quitting today, Hanson said the Tobacco Education Prevention Partnership with Boulder County Public Health encourages a list of steps people ought to follow to quit successfully.
Hanson said people should set a quit date. People should tell their family, friends and co-workers that they plan to quit. They should anticipate and plan for challenges they might face in quitting. They should remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from their home, car and workplace.
They should talk to their doctor about quitting. They should reach out and take advantage of the community resources that are available - such as today's day of awareness and encouragement.
Philip Vaughn II, the student wellness coordinator for the Student Wellness Program and a co-organizer for CU's participation with the Great American
Smokeout, said it is encouraging that more people don't smoke than do smoke at CU, but ultimately he said he would like to see nobody smoke.
“I'd like to put out a flier that says, ‘100 percent of CU students chose
not to smoke,'” said Vaughn, who is also a CU-Boulder economics senior. “As long as there are still people who smoke, I'm going to consider it to be a pretty big problem because of all the health hazards that are associated
with smoking.”
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