Back to School Also Means Kicking the Tobacco Habit

An initiative to regulate the use of tobacco products among young adults in communities throughout the state will also begin to appear on college campuses.

The anti-tobacco policy took effect Aug. 15 at Michigan State University, which prohibits the use of tobacco in all forms, including vaping, on all university facilities throughout the state and around the world.

“Most of the public schools, both in Michigan and across the Big Ten, our peers, already have some version of a smoke-free, or in our case, tobacco-free policy," MSU spokesman Jason Cody told Michigan Radio. “While there wasn't any one school we worked with directly when we started this process about two and a half years ago, we reached out to several Big Ten schools and several Michigan public schools about their experiences, how it worked, and tried to get as much feedback from them as we could.”

The new policy was approved by the Michigan State University Board of Trustees last year, providing ample time for students and faculty to become educated on the pending changes.

Meanwhile, other state university college campuses have similar policies.

The University of Michigan has been a smoke-free campus since 2011.

As a result, surveys taken by campus leadership indicate the five-year old policy has helped students and faculty adopt healthier lifestyles by encouraging them to cut back on tobacco use, or quit altogether.

"These results are encouraging. However, we know that the remaining smokers are likely to be those staff, faculty and students who either are not ready to stop, or who have been unable to quit. They will need extra support to stop tobacco use," Dr. Robert Winfield, U-M chief health officer and director of the University Health Service, said in a statement.

Cities have also taken the initiative to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Earlier this month, the Ann Arbor City Council approved an ordinance that raised the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21.

Ann Arbor is the first Michigan city to adopt the ordinance, council member Julie Grand said.

“All public-health ordinances balance personal liberties with public good,” Grand told The Detroit News. “I feel that the benefits to the health of our young people far outweighs any infringement on personal liberty.”

However, some local businesses feel differently.

Chuck Ghawi, who has owned and operated f Maison Edwards Tobacconist since 1963, said University of Michigan students are frequent customers at the shop that sells cigars, pipes and pipe tobacco. Now, those customers will go outside Ann Arbor to acquire those products, he said.

“I think the (council) is overstepping its bounds,” Ghawi told the Detroit News. “I anticipate the ordinance will be challenged.”

Image: Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr / Creative Commons