As of July 1, 2015, Eastern Michigan University adopted a tobacco free policy which prohibits the use of any form of tobacco products on campus owned property.
Although this policy has sparked controversy from the faculty and students at EMU, the overall goal of the policy is to provide healthy, alternative resources to help quit the addiction.
Isabelle McCormack, a senior in the nursing program at EMU, has dedicated her undergraduate research to promoting a smoke-free campus.
“My research goal is to decrease smoking among EMU students due to the known negative health effects of cigarette use,” said McCormack.
Other students on campus feel the obtainable resources are just wasted efforts because a negative attitude is still spread over the smokers on campus.
“I believe the majority of students are just upset that the university is forcing this upon them and won’t really respond to it,” said Daniel Dahl, a junior in the Aviation Flight Technology program.
The policy has brought some positive reactions thus far from students on campus. Jennifer, a senior at EMU who would like to keep her last name unknown due to personal reasons, has decided to quit smoking in response to EMU’s tobacco-free policy.
“I’ve known for a while now that I should quit smoking, but never found a good opportunity since I was able to smoke everywhere I went. Since I spend the majority of my time on campus [a place where smoking is now prohibited] I thought it was the perfect chance. It’s been about two weeks and I feel great,” she said.
If you want to give quitting a chance, Eastern has many resources now available to help quit the nicotine habit. A good place to start would be to make an appointment with a nurse at Snow Health Clinic to go over quitting options and provide tips to deal with issues such as cravings and withdrawal.
By using your student health insurance, students can also purchase tobacco cessation products, such as nicotine patches.
If you are worried about confidentiality, or would like help that doesn’t involve face-to-face contact, the National Cancer Institute offers telephone advice at 1-877-448-7848 and a personalized “quit kit.” Online counselors are also available at www.cancer.gov/help.
There is also an app called Call It Quits for both Android and iOS systems that provides tips and lets you set a tracker so that you can visually see your progress. Call It Quits also offers “quit coaches” that you can call to help you through your journey of quitting.
If you’re scared of going through the transition alone, Nicotine Anonymous offers a 12-step meeting based program either in person, over the phone, or on the web. Visit https://nicotine-anonymous.org/find-a-meeting for more information about meetings and the 12-step program.
For more resources and data on how to quit smoking visit http://www.emich.edu/tobaccofree/ and be on the lookout for EMU’s tobacco-free campus initiative website during the winter semester.
