Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Kicking Butts

Courtesy FreeFoto.com

On the University of Massachusetts campus today, you don’t have to be a superhero or know martial arts to kick some butts. In fact many of us kick butts without even noticing it.

Simply take a look around and you will notice the vast amounts of cigarette butts courtesy of smokers campuswide. Not only do smokers affect our physical environment, but they also affect everyone’s health. Second-hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States, racking up 53,000 deaths a year.

If you think second-hand smoke is bad, imagine the effects of first-hand smoke. Worldwide tobacco is a major cause of death with one in 10 adults dying from tobacco use or exposure. Five million people die every year because of tobacco. In recent years, tobacco has been deemed a Class-A carcinogen. In other words, there is no safe level of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

It is very clear that cigarettes are a serious health hazard which we all need to be more aware of. Some believe since they are young, tobacco can’t be too bad for them, however this notion is incorrect. Every time you smoke even one cigarette, you are shaving off years from your expected lifespan. Tobacco use may help some people relieve their stress, or help them focus, but the negative side effects largely outweigh the positive.

Smoking leads to shortness of breath, greatly hampering an individual’s participation in athletics or even normal day activities as simple as walking to class. Smoking also may cause lung cancer, tooth disease, gum disease, colds, the flu, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This list isn’t even a handful the effects of smoking and tobacco use.

Why does smoking have so many negative possible health hazards? Have you ever taken the time to research the chemicals used to make the cancer sticks you use? A single cigarette contains 4,000 chemicals and 43 carcinogens. Some chemicals used are ammonia (used in many cleaning products), formaldehyde, arsenic (also known as rat poison), methane (rocket fuel), butane (lighter fluid), cadmium (found in batteries), hydrogen cyanide (gas chamber poison) and carbon monoxide (car exhaust).

Regardless of all the bad effects cigarettes have on people’s bodies and on those around them, there is still a significant amount of students on campus who smoke. According to the United States National Library of Medicine, 30 percent of college students smoke cigarettes.

With that said, I believe it is safe to say that 98 percent of all students campus wide are effected by tobacco, whether it be first-hand or second-hand. I can recall countless times when I was enveloped in a cloud of cigarette smoke on the way to class, as many of us can and the very smell of it is unpleasant. Smokers are slowly killing themselves and others around them. What can we do as fully aware students to create a healthier environment for everyone? They are a number of different routes that we can take.

December of 2009 was when 365 campuses declared or at least planned some form of smoking ban, with many more to follow in their footsteps. Some of the schools include Salem State, the University of Maine and the University of Kentucky. UMass has signs posted on most buildings which state no smoking within 20 feet, however this rule is rarely enforced and most smokers do not follow it at all.

Most ash cans where cigarette butts are supposed to be disposed are placed directly in front of the buildings that have these signs. In addition, although we might be able to avoid walking through a cloud of smoke when entering buildings, we still will not be able to completely avoid the second-hand smoke. Maybe the smokers themselves notice that no matter where the smoking is done, the effects on people around will not differ. The only way to completely ensure the health of the students is to take the advice of organizations such as the American College Health Association and go 100 percent tobacco free indoors and outdoors.

Not only would this aid in student health but would also help in the health of our environment. Some of the chemicals released by smoking have a negative effect on our ozone layer. We have cigarette bins but still have to deal with smokers littering, which takes away from the beauty of our campus. University Health Services has implemented its annual “No Butts About It Day” where a number of volunteers go around picking up cigarette butts.

In November 2008 12 pounds of cigarette butts were collected in just three hours. These butts are put on display to make our community more aware of smoking and are later disposed of. Maybe instead of picking up butts every year, the university should offer a class for credits that makes students aware of effects of tobacco and offer them help in quitting. Rather than  picking up butts every year, we should focus on kicking this habit to create a tobacco free environment for all.

Curtis Bloomfield is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].

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  • A

    adalat xl 60 mgJan 11, 2012 at 9:54 am

    Cool story!

    Reply
  • F

    fastestelectricscooterSep 21, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    i love your blog i have it in my rss reader and always like new things coming up from it.

    Reply
  • W

    Weldon LanksterMar 23, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    Along with every thing that appears to be developing within this specific subject material, all your perspectives are quite radical. Having said that, I beg your pardon, because I do not subscribe to your entire idea, all be it exhilarating none the less. It looks to everyone that your remarks are generally not completely justified and in fact you are yourself not really totally confident of your argument. In any case I did enjoy reading through it.

    Reply
  • S

    Stephen HelferOct 28, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    That is one of the reasons, although U.S. smoking rates have declined precipitously in the last 30 years, anti-smoking activists still cite the same number of deaths they claim are caused by smoking as they did in 1980.

    B.U. School of Public Health professor Michael Siegel, MD, a longtime anti-smoking activist, believes the anti-smoking movement has become scientifically and politically abusive. He hypothesizes that since the tobacco industry is unable–due to the 1998 tobacco settlement–to respond to anti-smoking claims their claims have become more and more fantastic.

    Dr. Siegel’s blog is:

    http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com

    Reply
  • B

    BrandonOct 27, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    “If Brandon smokes five packs of cigarettes during his senior year of high school, does not smoke for 72 years, and dies of congestive heart failure at 90, the CDC will include it as a “preventable” smoking-related death.”

    In response, that is ridiculous if true.

    Reply
  • S

    Stephen HelferOct 27, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    Please see “Calculating ‘The Big’ Kill,” Brad Rodu, University of Louisville.

    http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv30n4/v30n4-2.pdf

    Reply
  • S

    Stephen HelferOct 27, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    Fresh air and innocence are good if you don’t take too much of them–but I always remember that most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air.

    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is responsible for the much-publicized 400,000-odd “preventable” smoking-related death estimate, defines a “former” smoker as someone who has smoked 100 cigarettes in his lifetime and is not smoking when surveyed. For the purposes of its yearly estimate, the CDC does not distinguish between “former” and “current” smokers.

    If Brandon smokes five packs of cigarettes during his senior year of high school, does not smoke for 72 years, and dies of congestive heart failure at 90, the CDC will include it as a “preventable” smoking-related death.

    Reply
  • B

    BrandonOct 25, 2010 at 7:52 pm

    “Many of these deaths attributed to tobacco are far-fetched. If someone smokes a hundred cigarettes in his life he is a “smoker.” So if he smokes only in his senior of high school, and never again, and dies 65 years later at 85 of congestive heart failure, it is attributed to smoking.”

    This would be an unreliable study, and I’ve never heard of such a study being done before, where the parameter being measured against is the lifetime of a human being while having smoked 100 cigarettes at some point in their lifetime.

    I’ve probably smoked close to that number in my life during 4-5 months while in high school. When I die, I can be certain that the cause of death will not be attributed to the ~100 cigarettes I smoked 50-60 years back when I was entering my senior year of high school. The important aspect here you’re overlooking to justify your argument is that most of these studies compare *lifestyle* differences. It has been shown that those who regularly smoke, and have been smoking for quite a long time, do not live longer relative to those who do not smoke. Of course there are other important lifestyle factors that are also considered: diet, exercise, sleep schedule, and so on.

    ” while the deaths attributed to tobacco occur after 40 or 50 years of smoking usually when people are in their 70s or 80s.”

    The point is that smoking is a preventable death. Carcinogens in cigarettes have also been experimentally measured to produce mutagen rates in human DNA. What the question boils down to is, “Is smoking a healthy habit?” It is not a healthy habit, it damages your health.

    “Long-time smokers don’t smoke more and more, but usually level off at about a pack a day even if they smoke fifty years, like Jane Brody’s husband, or more.”

    This must happen when long time smokers have already settled on the “pack a day” routine, after they already smoked “more and more” relative to that 1 or 2 cigarettes a day when they first started. I’m sure there is a trend and there may be a point where long time smokers develop a pattern. It depends how you define “more and more” and “long-time smoker.” A smoker of 50 years isn’t going to suddenly change their routine to 2 packs a day, however, a smoker of a month is still testing how many cigarettes they feel they need to “get through the day” and is more responsive to change.

    Reply
  • J

    JOct 25, 2010 at 11:52 am

    A campus-wide ban on cigarettes sales will go a long way help smokers on campus quit.

    Reply
  • S

    Stephen HelferOct 23, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Increasingly the anti-smoking movement is being driven more by ideology than by science or evidence.
    Michael Siegel, MD, Boston University School of Public Health

    Long-time smokers don’t smoke more and more, but usually level off at about a pack a day even if they smoke fifty years, like Jane Brody’s husband, or more.

    While anti-smokers attribute (wrongly or rightly) to tobacco the deaths of more people than many of the other causes of death combined they don’t mention that AIDS, auto deaths, drug overdoses, violence, etc. often kill children and young adults while the deaths attributed to tobacco occur after 40 or 50 years of smoking usually when people are in their 70s or 80s.

    Many of these deaths attributed to tobacco are far-fetched. If someone smokes a hundred cigarettes in his life he is a “smoker.” So if he smokes only in his senior of high school, and never again, and dies 65 years later at 85 of congestive heart failure, it is attributed to smoking.

    Reply
  • M

    MarthaOct 23, 2010 at 7:22 am

    Saw your piece about to cleaning up cigarette butts. Way to go!!!!

    I have developed a Facebook group to help inform people about cigarette butts being litter. It is called “Cigarette butts are litter…Don’t pollute!” I have added your piece to the wall!

    The group page contains a lot of informative links from around the world sharing great ideas and methods on how to deal with cigarette butts rather than tossing them, as well as what other cities around the world are doing about cigarette butt litter.
    Please join if you are able. Here is the link.

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119234051441030

    With proper education eventually smoker’s will know it is unacceptible to throw butts.

    Reply
  • C

    Curtis BloomfieldOct 21, 2010 at 9:05 pm

    Even if these are said to be effects of nicotine, the point is that your body eventually starts requiring you to smoke more and more in order to achieve these effects that you have mentioned. You sound as if you are advertising and supporting the smoking of cigarettes which clearly has been one if not the biggest cause of deaths of Americans every year. Personally I would rather a different way to relieve stress, calm my nerves and increase my awareness than smoking cigarettes (which is why I go to the gym workout and play sports). This whole things about cigarettes helping you out is a load of bull and feeds into the worldwide view that Americans are lazy. Physical activity has been proven to be a reducer of stress, sports increase your awareness and also calms your nerves. If you want to stay up drink some coffee. It seems you are making an excuse as to why people kill themselves off with the use of nicotine.

    Reply
  • S

    Stephen HelferOct 20, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    “Tobacco calms your nerves, increases awareness, allows you to stay up. These are all things that people want in the middle of a disaster.”

    Dr. David J. Prezant, NYFD chief medical officer, New York Times.

    Maxine,

    You’re talking about a different article. The Brody article I am quoting, has nothing to do with Ms. Brody’s husband and is from 5/20/08.

    Mr.Brody, according to his wife in the article you may be referring to, started smoking at 11, smoked for 50 years, abstained for 15 years, and died of lung cancer–not emphysema–at 76–not a tragically young death.

    Reply
  • M

    Maxine SchmidtOct 20, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    Steve’s posted quote is *not* a quote by Jane Brody. It was said by a scientist describing why people become addicted to tobacco, quoted in an article by Brody about her husband’s death from smoking-related emphysema. Her husband himself is quoted as saying to their sons, “Learn from my mistake — if you never start, you’ll never have to quit.”
    I would advise Steve to check his sources more carefully. Any librarian would be happy to help him find the information he needs to be construct a credible argument.

    Reply
  • S

    Steve (shelfer@gmail)Oct 20, 2010 at 10:25 am

    “Among the…effects of nicotine are arousal, relaxation, improved mood, reduced anxiety and stress, better concentration and faster reaction time.”

    Jane E.Brody, personal health columnist, New York Times.

    Reply
  • C

    ChesterfieldOct 20, 2010 at 9:01 am

    Don’t moralize the tobacco issue. People aren’t worse because they smoke, as your article suggests.

    Reply
  • B

    Brandon YanofskyOct 20, 2010 at 1:49 am

    Do you know if there is a stat such as “every cigarette you smoke shaves off x number of days from your
    Ife”? Maybe that will have some effect.

    Reply