Tobacco Issues
Sky-High Smoking Rates at Junior CollegesA survey of community colleges conducted in 2000 shows sky-high smoking rates among younger students in San Mateo County. More than 44% of the students at Cañada College and nearly 50% of the students at Skyline College reported that they had smoked cigarettes within the past 12 months.
White students reported the heaviest tobacco use—Nearly 56% of Cañada students and 62.5% of Skyline students. Latinos reported usage rates of 29.1% at Cañada and 40.7% at Skyline. Asian/Pacific Islanders reported rates of 48.3% at Skyline and 18.8% at Cañada. African Americans reported rates of 20% at Cañada and 33.3% at Skyline.
The survey was completed by 405 Cañada students and 136 Skyline students. Most of the respondents were 18-24 years old.
The new community college survey showed that 10.6% of Skyline students and 8.7% of Cañada students began smoking at age 18 or older.
Most of the smokers (66.4% at Cañada and 71.1% at Skyline) said they had tried unsuccessfully to quit.
Students at both schools felt that exposure to secondhand smoke was a higher risk than smoking "a few cigarettes per day."
A separate study showed slightly lower rates at the College of San Mateo (39%) and Contra Costa College (38%). The rates for young adults ages 18-24 are higher than for younger adolescents in San Mateo County. According to a survey conducted two years ago by the County Tobacco Prevention Program, 37% of high school juniors had smoked a cigarette within the past 12 months.
One-fifth of the students on both Cañada and Skyline campuses reported tobacco use on a regular basis. They said they smoked on 11 or more days in the previous months. Fourteen per cent of Cañada respondents and 10.6% of Skyline respondents said they smoked 11 or more cigarettes per day.
On All College Campuses
Smoking is rising on college campuses. By 1997, 25% of college students at commuter schools were smokers, up from 19% in 1993, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 11/18/98.
While most smokers begin using tobacco as teenagers, the same recent study found an amazing 28% of college smokers began to smoke regularly, and 11% had their first cigarette, after age 19.
Influence of Industry Marketing
The rise in college-age smoking has paralleled the tobacco industry's increased targeting of college-age young adults with advertising and promotions, like special events and give-aways in nightclubs.
Tobacco advertising's effectiveness
We see that young smokers' selection of the most advertised
brands increases through the teen years, with 88% of 12th graders
using Marlboro, Newport or Camel cigarettes, the three most
heavily advertised brands.
(From an annual survey of teen substance use conducted by
the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research,
reported 4/4/99 in a news release by the US DHHS.)
Society's focus on keeping youth from using tobacco ironically has allowed the tobacco industry to frame smoking as an "adult habit" and a rite of passage - a clear appeal to teenagers and young adults.
On the other hand, researchers have found that restricting public smoking has a strong impact on teenage smoking behavior (Wasserman et al. in the Journal of Health Economics, 1991). The authors explain this effect by noting that teenagers "may be even more sensitive to how others view their behavior than adults."
