Smoking On Campus

On November 19, 2015, the University of Anchorage Alaska implemented a smoke and tobacco free policy on campus. The policy and its regulations can be found on the UA Board of Regents’ Policy and University Regulation (2014), which states that any smoking and littering of tobacco-related products are prohibited on campus, and applies to any event and every person employing the use of campus grounds. UAA’s students and staff hope that the policy would reduce cigarette butt waste, decrease smoking and tobacco use, and prevent secondhand smoking on campus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Ahmed et al., 2014), 43 out of 100 adults living in the United States with a GED certificate use tobacco related products. This is higher than the ratio of adults with a GED and those with a high school diploma or associate degree. CDC (State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System, 2015) also states 16% of the Alaskan population with ages above eighteen years old use tobacco related products, which is also the highest percentage among the other age groups. These statistics point to young adults as most prevalent in smoking and tobacco use; young adults with small working jobs and studying for a career or higher education. …show more content…
The survey shows smoking is statistically not a problem with students on campus, but a Cigarette Butt Study done on UAA’s campus (Garcia, Mapaye, & Tabatabai, 2015) reported 31 volunteers picked up a total of 5,421 cigarette butts. Garcia’s data could mean that smoking and tobacco use was still prevalent on campus among staff and people from outside the campus, and not so much among the students. The UAA Smoking and Tobacco Free Policy (UA BOR P05.12.102, 2014) was then implemented to provide a safe, healthy, and smoke-free environment on