@retiredfarmer, condolences on your loss. My mother died at 69 from strokes that were likely highly influenced by her 32 year smoking habit. She did quit, but too late, as she had her first stroke six months later.
@retiredfarmer My condolences to you and your family. =((
My D & I are glad she’s at a smokefree campus. This is only the 2nd year of smokefree & a few upperclassmen still smoke on campus but it’s very minimal.
We were definitely turned off, on one college tour where we saw groups of smokers very close to building entrances.
It’s a shame that smoking has regained some of its cool, hip cachet.
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html has smoking rates by various demographic groups:
Age:
13.0% 18-24
17.7% 25-44
17.0% 45-64
08.4% 65+
So young people are less likely to smoke than their elders (other than the 65+ group, though that may reflect a survivorship bias in that smokers may have died earlier).
Education:
24.2% less than high school
34.1% GED
19.8% high school graduate
18.5% some college
16.6% associates degree
07.4% undergraduate degree (presumably bachelor’s)
03.6% graduate degree
Perhaps the college smokers may just be more visible now that they can no longer smoke indoors and are now visibly clustered just outside the door (some places have a minimum-distance-from-door rule because there could otherwise by a heavy cloud of smoke to go through to enter or exit the building).
Other demographic groups mentioned on that page:
Higher: AI/AN, multiracial, men, poor, LGB, transgender, military servicemembers, military veterans, people with HIV, with mental health conditions, with disabilities
Lower: Asian, Hispanic/Latino, women, not in the other demographics with higher smoking rates
No mention of specific college student demographics (e.g. by major).
"
Age:
13.0% 18-24
17.7% 25-44
17.0% 45-64
08.4% 65+"
I don’t find these statistics to helpful in drawing any meaningful conclusions because:
a. 18 years have just reached the age of legal smoking and it’s unlikely that they rush out after their birthdays to go grab a pack to become addicted
b. The difference in the year ranges in the groupings - 6 vs. 20.
@ucbalumnus. This is an education website. Interesting to note the correlation with level of years spent studying our world and smoking. Another reason to better understand our world. Anyone interested in studying the behavioral science of addiction? Think of all the pain our country is going through now with addiction and the need to better understand our own behavior.
I’m too old. Are any young people looking for a problem to solve? With the right motivation, college becomes easy!
@retiredfarmer , I am so sorry for your loss.
@retiredfarmer I’m so sorry. I’m just so, so sorry.
My grandma died in her early 60s of lung cancer from a pack or 2 a day habit. My grandpa died within a few days of her, on my third birthday, of a broken heart. It’s the reason I’ve never even been tempted to pick up a cigarette.
My mom finally quit almost 10 years ago. I know she still sneaks one every now and again but mostly she’s about the weed and usually partakes in ways other than straight up smoking a joint. But I have a whole host of 2nd hand effects from her: chronic lung problems including chronic bronchitis and pneumonia, hearing loss from chronic infections, etc. I’m the poster child for second hand smoke.
UMich is a non-smoking campus. It doesn’t stop most people from smoking. I hate walking behind smokers and will do everything I can to avoid it.
It makes me sad when any of my undergrads come in reeking of cigarettes. I really want to go full-on momma bear and yell at them about screwing up their futures… but even if I could, I know it wouldn’t help.
I have no empirical evidence to back up my impression that smoking is more common or acceptable among edgy bohemian types. After the fact googling tells me that smoking among college students is lower than it was a generation ago. There is a shocking scarcity of info specifically about college students.
An interesting tack is that many college students are intermittent social-type smokers which jibes with my impression that they think it’s cool. They don’t consider themselves smokers and seem to think they’ll just quit in the future.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693762/
@NEPatsGirl Thanks for sharing that. Makes me want to move back to Mass (Boston U grad here).
I am sick of being blasted by smoke in public places. Going out for fresh air has become more unhealthy than staying indoors in NYC.
Unfortunately my experience is that bans aren’t always enforced. We had one placed at the commuter train stations a couple of years ago, but the transit police were absolutely out of sight. No enforcement and the ban is regularly violated.
My D is a junior at Pomona who is spending this semester at Swarthmore under a domestic exchange program. She has been surprised by the number of smokers at Swat compared to seeing almost none at the 5C’s. She also went to a conference last fall at Bard and said there were even more smokers at Bard than Swat.
I was surprised to see smokers outside D’s honors dorm when she was freshman. But the next year the whole campsu became non-smoking so no longer issue at that school. I just didn’t see it among her peers in HS so was a little surprised.
S2 just got home from ND on Saturday for his fall break and says that the Juul e-cigs are all over and was surprised by the popularity. Most cigarette smoking on campus is by the workers.
It’s no lie - MJ is much more skunk-smelling than 30 years ago. Even the plants are a lot more pungent.