Health
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, March 2. 1989
9
Story by Rias Mohamed Photo illustration by Steve Traynor
are Mike Vance resisted smok
S ophomite Mike Vassis resisted smok-
ing in high school. He was strong not to yield
to peer pressure. In his group of 15 friends,
rule two threather and he was one of them.
But during his early freshman days in college, his roommate influenced him to smoke
"It it all revolved around my roommate," said Vasos, who is from Mission. "He used to put one out for me every day. I told him to put it away. He said, 'Smoke it or throw it away.' The first time I threw it away. But he kept putting it out. And I couldn't do it after some time."
"When you are a freshman, everything is new and you need somebody to stand with. In a completely new environment, it's very, very hard to resist peer pressure."
A recent national survey of college freshmen said that a 22-year decline in smoking could be reversing itself
The findings by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles showed that in 1966, 16.6 percent of freshmen nationwide were smokers. That fell steadily to 8.9 percent in 1967, but rose to 10.1 percent among those entering college last fall.
interning college has not. The survey also said that among college freshmen
Warnings ignored
KU's office of institutional research and painting did not have statistics on smoking among freshmen
overall, more women smoked than men, 8.2 percent of men smoked and 11.3 percent of women smoked.
Charles Yookey, chief of staff of Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that although education has worked to decrease the rate of smoking nationally, there was a limit to what it could do.
there was a little more. "Basically, we've reached a plateau," he said. "People are becoming immune to the educational efforts. The message is there everywhere. It's on the package; it's on the bulletin. They don't even read the warning anymore."
"The last thing college students are worried about is what they will be at 40 or 50. Students underestimate the addiction potential of smoking. They go from social smoking to addiction smoking. Not one is an addiction drug. Statistics have shown that one able to quit, meaning people have been able to out," he said.
warning to students
Yokoya said students underestimated the addiction
Yockey said that all college students had enough information about the bad effects of smoking.
"Nobody in 1940 knew of lung cancer. But every one of the college students is told too times that
smoking is bad," he said.
smoking is bad. It is also
At Watkins, most of the smoking related illnesses
such as chest colds are common among sophomores
or juniors. Yockey said
or juniors," Parker said. "People who didn't have problems in the first year have problems in the second year or junior year," he said.
Emphasis on prevention
Vockey said associations such as the American Lang Association should target their tobacco education efforts at the junior and senior high schools
Roberta Kunks, program director of American Lang Association of Kansas, said that if the survey results were true, prevention efforts should continue more strongly in high schools.
"It is sad that the trend is being reversed," she said. "This is the first time we've heard that I think more education in junior high and high schools — the age when people are starting to smoke — is necessary. They start between 12 and 18. Most people don't start in college. They are already smoking when they enter college."
Kunkle said that from 1974 to 1963 the rate of smoking decreased more among college students than it decreased among high school students.
The smoking rate dropped from 17.7 percent in 1974 to 34.4 percent in 1985 among high school
students, but the rate decreased from 28.5 percent to 18.4 percent among college students.
Kunle attributed the difference to older students being more educated than high school students
Women smokers
Women's studies specialists say they're not sure why more women than men smoke as college freshmen.
Angel Kwolek Follard, lecturer in women's studies and assistant professor of history, said, "It's a puzzle to me. The explanation ranges from 'My boyfriend does it' to 'It seems like a good idea.'"
She also said that.
She also said that: tobacco advertising targeted women more than
most women smokers' parents or older sisters
smoked
Cari Larson, Omaha, Neb., freshman, said that she picked up smoking because she lit cigarettes for her older sister driving the car and also because of her rebellious attitude — her parents, former smokers, told her not to smoke.
not to smoke
Although her parents opted her well-informed about the bad effects of snfoking, she succumbed to peer pressure.
"I thought I was cool," she said. "I just thought it was the 'in' thing to do. But now I'm booked to it."