Journal of American College Health releases Tobacco Issue

Routledge is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 60, Issue 7, 2012 - the Tobacco Issue -- from Journal of American College Health (JACH). Compiled by the three Executive Editors of the JACH with an editorial from Reginald Fennell, PhD, MCHES, FACHA, NREMT-P, this special edition focuses on the ongoing national effort to make collegiate campuses in the United States tobacco free, while assessing how policies are being implemented.

An increasing number of collegiate campuses in the United States are becoming tobacco free. There are over 825 campuses that have a 100 percent tobacco free policy with no exemptions, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Some large universities such as Auburn, the University of Florida and the University of Kentucky are on this list. Legislation passed in the states of Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma has banned smoking on all public campuses. Furthermore, the Board of Regents in Ohio voted unanimously to recommend all public campuses go tobacco free this past summer.

"College campuses represent a perfect environment to shape norms - encouraging cessation, preventing initiation, and establishing health and well-being of the whole campus community," said Jennifer Haubenreiser, President of ACHA.

Tobacco free campuses present less health risks for young adult students in their futures. The United States Surgeon General reports that nearly 99 percent of smokers begin before the age of 26, and the health risks include nicotine addiction, cardiovascular damage, decreased lung function and even early death. Smokeless products such as Snus and Bandits are considered more addicting and harder to quit. "Tobacco free campuses are a great public health initiative," Dr. Fennell wrote in his introductory editorial. "However, without a clearly defined and actionable enforcement component, they serve little purpose."

The Tobacco Issue has articles that can provide insight for administrators making campus smoking policy decisions on their campuses. It has research regarding compliance to tobacco free policies, changes in the beliefs and prevalence of smoking on campus, assessment of tobacco free policies in North Carolina, water pipe smoking and actual field experience advocating for changes to campus smoking policies.

"With more than 20 million college students in the United States, the Editors hope this Journal of American College Health Special Issue on tobacco will lead to more universities throughout the United States and in other countries examining their tobacco policies and changes that can be implemented for the health of college students," Fennell said.