COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) As a political science major at Ohio State University, Ida Seitter says, she lit up many a cigarette to help her through the stress of exam season. Right or wrong, they were her security blanket as she toiled through college.
Seitter, now 26, was old enough by then to make her own decisions, she says. She opposes efforts by policymakers in Ohio, New York, California and other states to impose bans on tobacco use not just in buildings at public colleges, but also anywhere on the campus even in the open air.
Just back away from me a little bit. I wont blow it in your face and Ill try not to be rude, Seitter says. At the same time, I think its a little discriminatory for a practice that is considered legal.
Bans on tobacco in all its forms are being enacted or considered at perhaps half of campuses nationwide, sometimes over the objections of student smokers, staff and faculty. The movement is driven by mounting evidence of the health risks of secondhand smoke, the reduced costs of smoke-free dorms and a drive to minimize enticements to smoke at a critical age for forming lifelong habits.
Californias state system will bar tobacco use by August 2013. A ban on use and advertising at the City University of New York system goes into effect in September, and the University of Missouri at Columbia is going smoke-free in 2014.
Ohio higher education officials plan a vote next month urging all public campuses to ban tobacco use. That includes Ohio State, one of the nations largest universities, which currently bans only indoor smoking.
According to the surgeon generals report for 2012, tobacco use among people ages 18 to 25 remains at epidemic proportions nationwide. The review found 90 percent of smokers started by age 18, and 99 percent by age 26. About a quarter to a third of college students smoke, studies have found.
The study found the U.S. would have 3 million fewer young smokers if success in reducing youth smoking by state tobacco-cessation programs from 1997 to 2003 had been sustained. Many of the programs have been hit by budget cuts.
Health and education officials, anti-smoking groups and a generation of students who grew up smoke-free are increasingly united on the issue, says Bronson Frick, associate director of Americans for Nonsmokers Rights.
There are many reasons why a college or university may choose to pursue this type of policy, whether secondhand smoke, dorm fires, or other issues, he says. They are also questioning what the role of tobacco is in this academic setting, where were supposed to be standing for truth and training the next generation of leaders.
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