On November 19, 2015, the University of Anchorage Alaska implemented a smoke and tobacco free policy on campus. The policy and its regulations can be found on the UA Board of Regents’ Policy and University Regulation (2014), which states that any smoking and littering of tobacco-related products are prohibited on campus, and applies to any event and every person employing the use of campus grounds. UAA’s students and staff hope that the policy would reduce cigarette butt waste, decrease smoking and tobacco use, and prevent secondhand smoking on campus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Ahmed et al., 2014), 43 out of 100 adults living in the United States with a GED certificate use tobacco related products. This is higher than the ratio of adults with a GED and those with a high school diploma or associate degree. CDC (State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System, 2015) also states 16% of the Alaskan population with ages above eighteen years old use tobacco related products, which is also the highest percentage among the other age groups. These statistics point to young adults as most prevalent in smoking and tobacco use; young adults with small working jobs and studying for a career or higher education. In UAA, data from the UAA’s Tobacco Use, Perception, and Policy Survey (McCoy, 2015) says 80% of students on campus don’t smoke, and 75% of students support a smoke-free campus.
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The survey shows smoking is statistically not a problem with students on campus, but a Cigarette Butt Study done on UAA’s campus (Garcia, Mapaye, & Tabatabai, 2015) reported 31 volunteers picked up a total of 5,421 cigarette butts. Garcia’s data could mean that smoking and tobacco use was still prevalent on campus among staff and people from outside the campus, and not so much among the students. The UAA Smoking and Tobacco Free Policy (UA BOR P05.12.102, 2014) was then implemented to provide a safe, healthy, and smoke-free environment on campus. Campuses around the world have already implemented a smoke-free policy. At least a year after implementation, studies were then conducted to find results on whether the smoking policies were effective. In one of the largest universities in Saudi Arabia, their study aimed “to determine the difference on perceptions of smoking and non-smoking students, faculty, and staff for smoke-free policy” (Khalid & Almutairi, 2014). Other studies applied the same methods: a self-administered, anonymous, questionnaire or web-based survey with questions on general demographic information, smoking and tobacco habits, and perceptions on their universities’ smoking policy. Compared to others, a study conducted in Texas (Borders, Xu, Bacchi, Cohen, & SoRelle-Miner, 2005) provide the most extensive research and data on campus smoking policies, with surveys conducted in various universities throughout Texas. Using Texas’s study as a guideline, this study aims to find the short term effects a year following the implementation of UAA’s Smoking and Tobacco-Free policy (UA BOR P05.12.102, 2014). This study will also see if the weather has an affect on smoking. Other studies were conducted in places where warm weather allows for outside smoking while the campus in Anchorage, Alaska has temperatures ranging below 20 degrees fahrenheit and regular snowfall, discouraging smokers to not smoke. This study would be the first research following the UAA policy implementation as the results
The survey shows smoking is statistically not a problem with students on campus, but a Cigarette Butt Study done on UAA’s campus (Garcia, Mapaye, & Tabatabai, 2015) reported 31 volunteers picked up a total of 5,421 cigarette butts. Garcia’s data could mean that smoking and tobacco use was still prevalent on campus among staff and people from outside the campus, and not so much among the students. The UAA Smoking and Tobacco Free Policy (UA BOR P05.12.102, 2014) was then implemented to provide a safe, healthy, and smoke-free environment on campus. Campuses around the world have already implemented a smoke-free policy. At least a year after implementation, studies were then conducted to find results on whether the smoking policies were effective. In one of the largest universities in Saudi Arabia, their study aimed “to determine the difference on perceptions of smoking and non-smoking students, faculty, and staff for smoke-free policy” (Khalid & Almutairi, 2014). Other studies applied the same methods: a self-administered, anonymous, questionnaire or web-based survey with questions on general demographic information, smoking and tobacco habits, and perceptions on their universities’ smoking policy. Compared to others, a study conducted in Texas (Borders, Xu, Bacchi, Cohen, & SoRelle-Miner, 2005) provide the most extensive research and data on campus smoking policies, with surveys conducted in various universities throughout Texas. Using Texas’s study as a guideline, this study aims to find the short term effects a year following the implementation of UAA’s Smoking and Tobacco-Free policy (UA BOR P05.12.102, 2014). This study will also see if the weather has an affect on smoking. Other studies were conducted in places where warm weather allows for outside smoking while the campus in Anchorage, Alaska has temperatures ranging below 20 degrees fahrenheit and regular snowfall, discouraging smokers to not smoke. This study would be the first research following the UAA policy implementation as the results