Allison Dorminey

Staff Writer

aldorminey@valdosta.edu

If VSU is following the national trend fewer Blazers are blowing smoke.

Preston Maier, a freshman and smoker answered, “I have not smoked as regularly because I can’t just go sit outside of the door when I want one. The weather and time has to be suitable for smoking when I have to walk to the spots where smokers are supposed to smoke.”

On the eighth of September, the American Lung Association released a report stating that tobacco use among college students has decreased to its lowest level since 1980, according to Hannah Wallace, the Cavalier Daily Associate Editor.

Many campuses are beginning to crack down, and implement campaigns that will decrease the use of tobacco among students. VSU is now enforcing the use of the designated smoking areas more than last year. According to Health and Human Development’s article “Separating Fact from Fiction about Smoking on Campus,” in 2001, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh started a tobacco prevention initiative that decreased smoking rates by one-third following the plan, which is now used as a model for other campuses as they design their own prevention campaigns.

“I have not really noticed the decrease in smoking, but I can see why especially students living on campus would not smoke as much because of the areas they are being made to smoke in.” Rachel Howard, a junior and non-smoker, said.

While smoking is slowly decreasing, media and advertisements have huge influences on college students. The initiatives and campaigns that are working towards preventing smoking will have to work even harder to combat the media and other aspects working in tobacco’s favor.