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It’s the 21st century, and of course we know that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. Despite this common knowledge, it is hard, if not almost impossible, to find a quiet corner of campus that isn’t enveloped by clouds of toxic fumes. Whether it’s walking to class, outside of the student center, or at a party, students are constantly lighting up, but what’s the motivation?
With last year’s tax increase hiking up the price of a pack, we are left wondering whether student smoking has actually decreased, or if individuals will find alternative ways of getting their fix.
It was our goal to get to the bottom of the ashtray, so to speak. It seems to be almost a known fact that college students are the largest group of smokers. According to a national study, 26.7 percent of college students smoke cigarettes. 28 percent of college students who smoke begin to smoke regularly, at or after the age of 19, when most were already in college. While positive results are being seen in this population, the fact remains that more than a fourth of the college population are smokers.
Last March, federal taxes on cigarettes in Connecticut were raised $1 in addition to the already $2 state tax on every pack. This means that one pack of cigarettes (depending on the brand) can cost you around $7, which is a deadly hole in the wallets of smokers, especially on us college students!
Junior Spanish major Gina Curcio has tried to quit numerous times to no avail. “I know that they’re bad for me, and I know that they are ridiculously expensive, but I just cannot manage to quit. I always tell myself that I’ll quit after the next pack, but at the end of the pack I start up again and the vicious cycle continues,” Curcio says.
Niall Flanick, a senior biology major still smokes a pack a day regardless of the tax increase, saying that it costs him upwards of $8 with each purchase. “Cigarettes are way too expensive and I’ve been trying to cut down, but it is not easy,” Flanick says.
However, for college students it is not just cigarette smoke that seems to be the issue. For young twenty-something’s on campus, marijuana and hookah are other common forms of smoking, the cost of which may prove to become more economic than cigarettes.
Conducting a brief survey of 26 randomly-chosen Quinnipiac students, I discovered that while the majority of participants did not smoke, or have recently quit smoking (20/26 students), the difference between smokers and non-smokers decreased when it came to other substances. 11 out of 26 students admitted to smoking marijuana, while 16 say they have smoked hookah.
When asked their reasoning for smoking, students’ answers ranged from simple replies that it is “fun,” “relaxing” or “enjoyable.” There was also an overwhelming response of smoking as a social activity with one participant answering, “it is just something to do when we are all drinking.”
In terms of the increase or decrease of smoking due to the tax, a senior media production major (who wished not to be identified) said, “I don't think it [the tax] has effected things much, people who smoke cigarettes still pay the high price of health and money for their packs. I personally think that weed has always been the safer alternative, though it doesn’t really seem to appeal to the majority of the drinking crowd who are happy enough with their vice.”
It seems that many others share a similar perspective. When my survey asked students which substance they thought was the most dangerous to the body, cigarettes leapt to the top with 22 out of 26 students thinking that they were the most dangerous. One student thought marijuana was the most lethal, and two chose hookah. Only one chose to write their own response, saying that smoking any of these substances was bad, a truth that is not as well known.
It seems that this individual knew a little something about smoking. According to a study, “Respiratory Effects of Marijuana and Tobacco Use in a U.S. Sample” as published by the Society of General Internal Medicine, “marijuana smoke contains similar levels of tar as tobacco smoke and up to 50 percent more carcinogens. Four out of five marijuana users smoke unfiltered material, inhale the smoke more deeply, and hold the smoke longer than tobacco smokers, resulting in substantially greater tar deposits in the lungs than tobacco smokers.”
With the prevalence of hookah bars such as the Mediterranea Café and Restaurant on Orange Street and Mamoun’s in downtown New Haven, it is hard to think of smoking as a dangerous activity. Unlike cigarettes that tend to be more of an addicting, hard-to-quit habit, both marijuana and hookah have taken the form of a social activity for college students, with the exception being that hookah is a legal and almost-encouraged activity by these establishments.
Despite the availability of hookah bars and stores that sell hookah pipes and tobacco, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, hookah carries many of the same risks as smoking cigarettes, as well as similar toxins found in cigarette smoke, therefore still leading to the risk of oral, lung, stomach and esophageal cancers as well as reduced lung function and decreased fertility. “A typical 1-hour-long hookah-smoking session involves inhaling 100 to 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.” Due to this mode of smoking, hookah smokers may actually “absorb higher concentrations of the toxins found in cigarette smoke.”
Meghan Speranzo, a freshman broadcast journalism major says, “from my experience with friends, they have convinced themselves that hookah doesn’t have the same consequences that normal smoking does. To me, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard in my life! If you’re going to contaminate your body with any sort of drugs, you better be ready for the consequences.”
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