A report released by the Centers for Disease Control found that most smokers are not college educated. Yet walking The U of M campus, the sight of huddled groups of smokers puffing away between classes confirms additional CDC research that reports this group is steadily rising.
U of M junior Richard Webb started smoking when he got to college.
"My first cigarette was one of my mom's," said the 28-year-old undecided major, "but school stress caused me to smoke more."Webb said he only smokes between five and 10 cigarettes a day, but his goal is to quit after graduation.
"I mainly smoke at school and socially," he said. "I don't smoke that much on weekends."
According to the CDC, there are about 9,600 smoking-related adult deaths each year in Tennessee. Smoking costs Tennesseans about $1.99 billion in health costs each year as well.
The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2004 that male smokers shorten their lives by 13.2 years and females by 14.5 years. The CDC also found that smokers cost the nation's health care industry approximately $3,400 each per year.
U of M health educator Jacqueline DeFouw supports the findings that college-aged smoking is on the rise.
"The fastest growing group of smokers is college-aged white women, followed by college-aged African-American males," DeFouw said.
Justice Bolton, 20, agrees. Bolton is a junior broadcast major who says most of his male African-American friends have started smoking.
"Most started because they would smoke a cigarette along with smoking marijuana to increase the high," he said. "Eventually they got hooked."
Jerald White, 39, didn't start smoking in correlation with drug use, but he was exposed to smoking by relatives and at parties. Soon, he began smoking himself. White said that he was 25 when he started. Although he doesn't consider himself a heavy smoker, inhaling only five per day, White does realize that he needs to quit.
"I knew an older man who died from emphysema," said the engineer for U of M radio station WUMR. "I just want to stop before [my smoking] gets worse."
Prevelance among minority women is rising the slowest. DeFouw said that young African-American women are behind white women in smoking estimates. According to her limited research, DeFouw believes the reason for this is the lack of social acceptance of African-American women smokers in their community.
Thirty-one-year-old Camilla Owens understands the apprehension of African-Americans when it comes to dating a smoker. She has been smoking for three years and usually doesn't tell her dates that she is a smoker.
"They always say yuck," said Owens. "They complain about the smell, so I don't smoke when I know I'm going on a date."
Even though Tennessee hasn't contributed to assisting smokers in kicking the habit, the National Institute of Health gave $2 million to the effort. The Center for Community Health at The U of M was the recipient of the funds and started a program aimed at college-aged smokers to study the effects of different methods of smoking cessation.
"This is something really great for The University of Memphis," Janet Murphree, recruitment chair, told The Daily Helmsman. "Students can get all the support they need to help quit smoking -- free," she said.
Studies show that tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death in the U. S. About 1 out of every 5 deaths each year is caused by smoking, and this estimation includes second-hand smoke. Lung cancer, heart disease and various chronic lung diseases, such as emphysema, are the leading smoking-related illnesses. Pipe and cigar smoking increase the risks of dying from these diseases. Contrary to popular opinion, smokeless tobacco does not decrease the risks.
Every cigarette smoked shortens life expectancy by about five minutes -- around the same amount of time it takes to smoke it.
