Smoking Ban at Southeast Tech

A vote is set for August 9th

(July 28, 2010)—

ArgusLeader.com recently published a pro/con article about a campuswide smoking ban at Southeast Technical Institute.  The American Lung Association in South Dakota had the chance to voice our opinion and Lung Association staff member, Linda Redder shares her thoughts below.  You can link to the full article here.

By: Linda Redder

Each year, the tobacco industry is faced with replacing the more than 400,000 of its customers who die prematurely in the United States from diseases directly caused by tobacco products. For South Dakota, this means the loss of 1,000 of our loved ones each year. Their primary targets for those customers are our children and young adults.

 

The South Dakota Department of Health reports that approximately 18 percent of adults smoke, including a much higher rate of 22 percent among college-age. This higher rate is true across the country and speaks to the tobacco industry's marketing. The tobacco industry knows that young people are vulnerable to its messages of independence, choice and cool image. Each year, South Dakota spends an estimated $37 million to market the deadly product. 

 I was one of those young people. I started smoking at 16. For years I worried about what smoking was doing to my health, and I tried to quit. I was a nontraditional student, and I successfully quit smoking my senior year of college.

 

At the time, I was applying for an internship with an organization that didn't employ people who smoked. While I had wanted to quit smoking for years, the internship gave me the motivation to quit my addiction to nicotine. It would have been wonderful had the campus had a tobacco-free policy to support my desire to quit.

 

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death and disease in South Dakota and across the nation. Unless we change the way tobacco is used and where it is used, we can expect the same loss and tragedy around this product.

It wasn't that long ago that smoking was allowed in lecture halls, classrooms, airplanes and hospitals. It's hard to imagine lighting up in these environments now. That wouldn't have happened without changes at the grassroots level, starting with where tobacco is used.

 

Campuses across the country are addressing this issue and providing a learning environment that supports health. These institutions are preparing our young people and re-training nontraditional students for the workplace of the future. That future is a tobacco-free environment. 

 

 As our country debates health reform, one thing we can agree on is prevention to reduce costs. The annual health care costs in South Dakota caused by smoking are estimated at $272 million. This is $570 per household. Certainly making tobacco-use the hard choice is one step in reducing those costs and the human toll caused by tobacco.

 

The American Lung Association in South Dakota supports the decision by Southeast Technical Institute to establish a tobacco-free campus. In a recent article about the policy, a student who smokes was quoted as saying that designated smoking areas make it "easier." We want to make using tobacco the hard choice. A tobacco-free policy provides an environment that supports those who are trying to quit smoking.

 

A tobacco-free campus at STI sends a message to the community that STI values the health of students, staff, faculty members and guests. STI is joining a number of organizations and individuals that realize protecting public health by making using tobacco the hard choice is something they want to support.

Linda Redder of Sioux Falls is the Manager of Communications, Marketing and Special Events for the American Lung Association in South Dakota.