Changing Social Norms about Tobacco Use, One Campus at a Time
Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh
Among other things, the action plan commits to reducing the initiation of tobacco use among young adults, a topic with special relevance to institutions of higher learning. Furthermore, the 31st Surgeon General’s Report on Tobacco, released in March, highlighted some startling statistics pertinent to this goal. Preventing Tobacco Use among Youth and Young Adults notes that 90 percent of all smokers start before age 18, and 99 percent start before age 26. Of concern, progression from occasional to daily smoking frequently occurs during the initial years following high school. Indeed, the number of smokers who initiated smoking after age 18 has increased substantially over the past decade—from 600,000 in 2002 to 1 million in 2010.
The report cites reasons for these disturbing trends. Tobacco industry expenditures related to marketing, promotion, and advertising of tobacco products exceed $1 million per hour—totaling more than $27 million a day. Targeted messages and images portray tobacco use as a desirable and appealing activity. As a result, smoking represents the current social norm in many movies, video games, websites, and communities, thereby promoting a culture that fosters tobacco dependence and disease.
Restoring the social norm to one that, instead, promotes wellness and health requires a commitment to smoke-free and tobacco-free environments.
The Affordable Care Act, the health care law of 2010, is also part of our comprehensive approach toward turning this goal into reality. Most health plans must now cover—without cost-sharing—tobacco-use screening and interventions for tobacco users. The law also makes it easier and more affordable for young adults to get health insurance coverage, by allowing them to stay on their parent’s employer-sponsored or individually purchased health plan.
Smokefree Teen, a website specifically developed to help teen smokers quit, offers several social media pages to connect teens with cessation tools.To launch a new chapter in ending the epidemic of smoking, I was honored to participate last week in the announcement of the Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative
(TFCCI). The University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor hosted the September 12 event, which was webcast to nearly 500 attendees across the country. The TFCCI represents a public/private partnership involving key leaders from universities, colleges, and the public health community to promote the adoption of tobacco-free policies at institutions of higher learning. This landmark public health initiative will protect students, staff, and faculty against involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke while encouraging a change in social norms that can help reduce tobacco use.To date, more than 700 colleges and universities, representing an estimated 17 percent of institutions of higher learning nationwide, have committed to smoke-free or tobacco-free campus policies.
HHS is pleased to recognize the leadership of institutions that promote public health in this way. Such actions exemplify a key pillar of the tobacco control action plan—“leading by example.” In fact, by adopting a tobacco-free campus policy on July 1, 2011, HHS has already joined the ranks of such institutions leading by example. This action now protects the health of our 80,000 employees who work in dozens of buildings, grounds, and facilities across the country.
It is my hope that the launch of the TFCCI will encourage all institutions of higher learning to take action. It is time for us to end the epidemic leading to the single most preventable cause of death in this nation.
Together we can make smoking history.
Dr. Howard K. Koh
Assistant Secretary for Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NCI Cancer Bulletin for September 18, 2012 - National Cancer Institute
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