For the week of this year’s Great American Smokeout, Saint Michael’s College announced their new tobacco-free policy and launched their new website and promotional video. St. Mike’s staff spent an afternoon with our VT Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative Coordinator in the student center telling people passing by about the new policy and encouraging smokers to take the cessation resources provided and pick a quit date. Smokers were encouraged to attempt quiting for at least one Day on the Great American Smokeout and they could leave an email address to receive reminder emails and extra support.

To learn more about Saint Michael’s Tobacco-Free efforts, visit their website.

UVM President, Tom Sullivan, had this to say about their new policy in his recent memo to the community: “By joining 1500 other colleges and universities in this initiative, we reinforce our values in the areas of health, environmental responsibility, and concern for the well-being of all of the members of the UVM community.”

On February 4th, 2015 college and university representatives along with health professionals and prevention advocates attended the Tobacco Free College Campus Summit at the UVM Davis Center to examine the benefits of smoke and tobacco-free policies and learn more about ways colleges nationwide are protecting students from a lifetime of death and disease. Participants from across VT heard from national representatives for this issue as well as representatives from other colleges in New England that have implemented successful tobacco free policy changes.

Here are the speakers and the PowerPoints they presented at the Summit: 

Cliff Douglas-NationalTFCCI

Allison_Giroux-UVM Student

Ann_Becker-UMassAmherst

Harry_Chen-VTDeptofHealth

Veronica_Gates-CommunityCollege

Wendy_Pernall-Northeastern

For more information about the Summit or the Vermont Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative contact:

Mariah Sanderson, Statewide Coordinator
Vermont Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative
Office: 802.652.0997
Cell: 802.881.9227
mariah@burlingtonpartnership.org

Support for tobacco- and smoke-free college campuses is growing across the country with almost 1,500 campuses that have implemented 100% tobacco- or smoke-free policies. In Vermont, many campuses have already started making improvements to their tobacco policies or are looking at ways to strengthen policies to support the health of their campus students and staff.

Description:
This summit will provide an opportunity for college administration, staff, students, and community collaborators to examine the benefits of a tobacco free or smoke free campus policy. Participants will hear about a variety of ways policies are being implemented across the county and the resources in our area. Experts will help respond to implementation questions, such as: assessment, evaluation, student buy-in, providing cessation services, enforcement and compliance.
 
Who should attend?
College and university; administration, health care professionals, students, and prevention staff; community prevention coalition staff and tobacco cessation professionals.

REGISTER: http://bit.ly/1wE2040

For more information about the Summit, contact:
Statewide TFCCI Coordinator
Mariah Sanderson
Mariah@burlingtonpartnership.org
(802) 652-0997

The researchers surveyed California college students between September 2013 and May 2014 on 8 college campuses with a range of policies (smoke-free indoors only, designated outdoor smoking areas, smoke-free, and tobacco-free). Findings include:

• Stronger policies were associated with fewer students reporting exposure to secondhand smoke or seeing someone smoke on campus.
• On tobacco-free college campuses, fewer students smoked and reported intention to smoke on campus.
• Strong majorities of students supported outdoor smoking restrictions across all policy types.
• Comprehensive tobacco-free policies are effective in reducing exposure to smoking and intention to smoke on campus.

In summary, smoke and tobacco free policies are widely accepted and are working on the campuses surveyed in California. The full paper is available on PubMed.gov.

In one CDC study, the 2009 National Health Interview Survey noted that 38 percent of current smokers ages 18 to 25 reported they began regular smoking after age 18. In a recent UVM thesis, a graduate student in nursing found “that of the undergraduate and graduate students at UVM who smoke, more than a quarter of them took up the habit while at UVM.”

For these reasons and more many of our VT colleges have formed task forces and committees to look at improvement to their current policies. In the last year UVM, St. Michael’s college, and VT Technical College have all set goals of working toward a tobacco or smoke free campus policy in the next 1-3 years with actionable steps to implementation.

We applaud them for their commitment to improving health on their campuses!

Watch a video on the Tobacco-Free UVM website about why they want a tobacco free campus here.

Colleges in the area can expect this to positively impact their efforts to improve tobacco and smoking policies. Thousands of worksites, campuses, outdoor areas, housing complexes and more across our nation and state have created smoke free zones for their properties. The new ordinance banning smoking on Church Street helps to send a consistent message in our community about the importance of reducing exposure to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke in public places.

Mariah Sanderson, Director of Burlington’s prevention coalition, the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community, had this to say about the new ordinance, “BPHC is very enthusiastic about the smoking ban on Church Street and the positive impact we know it will have to support a vibrant, healthy downtown environment. Our coalition strongly supports efforts by our community to limit exposure of residents and visitors to secondhand smoke. Only 14% of Chittenden County residents and 17% of Vermonters smoke, yet 48% of people say they were exposed to secondhand smoke in the last 7 days (Vermont Adult Tobacco Survey). We need to take every measure to reduce this level of exposure and a smoking ban in the downtown area helps send a consistent message to our community about the individual and community consequences of smoking.”

See coverage of the press conference on the new smoking ban.

Consequences for smoking on Church Street: Burlington Police Department will issue a warning for the first violation. Second violation is a $50 fine. Subsequent violations are a $100 fine.