UF's tobacco-free policy succeeds in first year

June 30, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida officials say students, faculty and staff have reduced tobacco use and responded positively to the tobacco-free campus policy since it became effective a year ago this Friday.

“(The policy) has definitely been effective in reducing tobacco use. What’s particularly wonderful is that there are people who used the tobacco-free policy as a motivator to completely quit their use of tobacco, both on and off campus,” said Kathy Nichols, assistant director of the UF Area Health Education Center Program, which promoted UF’s tobacco-free policy. “In addition, I have spoken with many faculty, staff, and students about — and have also noticed firsthand — the incredible reduction not only in secondhand smoke on campus but also in tobacco litter.”

The program began its tobacco training and cessation program four years ago, and hundreds of students, faculty, and staff have taken advantage of free cessation services and received medications offered by the partnering organizations that UF AHEC supports.

One of those partners, UF’s Employee Assistance Program, saw a spike in registrations for the Quit Smoking Now cessation group just before the new tobacco-free policy took effect. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, there were 65 registered participants in the EAP tobacco cessation program. Fifty-two registered in anticipation of the new tobacco-free policy, according to Norma Charles with UF’s EAP. The number dropped to 26 from July 1, 2010, through June 27, 2011. The EAP cessation programs offers group and individual counseling to those trying to stop smoking.

UF remains the largest public university in the state to implement a tobacco-free policy, among about 500 smoke-free or tobacco-free campuses nationwide, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.

While no citations are issued to those who violate UF policy, an employee’s immediate supervisors can address any disciplinary issues. Student compliance is handled by the Office of Student Activities and Involvement. For visitors, enforcement remains the responsibility of the person in charge of the facility or area in use at the time.

“The tobacco-free campus policy is saving people money individually as well as saving health care costs for everyone,” Nichols said. “More importantly, the policy is saving lives.”

AHEC is funded through the Florida Department of Health as part of a statewide tobacco control program.

Debra Vander Reyden, a health support technician in UF’s Infirmary, said she tried to quit several times but found the expense of tobacco-cessation products such as lozenges or patches, not usually covered by health insurance, to be a burden.

“Unless you made a really good income you can’t take the products for more than three months before the expense began affecting your other household bills,” said Vander Reyden, whose “quit date” was Sept. 11, 2011. “The smoking cessation program here is great, supplying products, and the weekly support group is wonderful,” she said. “It made it possible for me to use the products that I could not otherwise afford. The grant-funded program can save a couple hundred dollars per month and it gives people a kick start on what they can achieve.”

Jane Emmerée, a health promotion specialist and quit coach at GatorWell Health Promotion Services Counseling and Wellness Center, said the Healthy Gators Coalition, which released tobacco-use data in fall 2009 that led to the UF policy, will re-administer the survey to staff in October and students in spring 2013.

For more information on the policy, cessation products and resources for UF employees, students and their families, visit http://www.tobaccofree.ufl.edu/.