TUESDAY, Sept. 9 – One out of five, U.S. college students have started smoking, but college and university management need to take a strong action against tobacco industry marketing strategies to stop growing rate of student smoking, a new American Lung Association report finds.

“Colleges and universities are responsible to provide safe and sound environment in which their students can study. This should include an atmosphere free of smoking and tobacco advertisements that persuade young adults to use harmful tobacco products,” Bernadette A. Toomey said.

The report authors’ keenly examine published research, surveys and tobacco industry graphs, to assess the tobacco impact on college students.

College student smoking rates have surged to the height of 30.6 percent, in the following decade, the report said. The tobacco industry is playing a key role in upward college student smoking rates. For an instance, in 2005, tobacco companies spent more than one million dollar each day, targeting college students, by sponsoring extracurricular activities and gift hampers.

“The industry’s return on investment is staggering. Nearly 20 percent of today’s college students are regular smokers. Even worse is (the tobacco industry’s) continued campaign to increase these numbers. Every college student in American has a target on their back as far as the tobacco industry is concerned,” Toomey said.

The American Lung Association invites college and university leaders to join the Smoke-free Air 2010 Challenge, a nationwide program, seeking to eliminate smoking and smoking related illnesses.

Association has provided the following suggestions

  • Prohibit tobacco use at all indoor and outdoor facilities.
  • Ban the sale of tobacco products within campus and its surroundings.
  • Refuse funding from the tobacco industry for any research.
  • Execute and enforce strong policies to aid in the prevention.
  • Educate students and faculty about the harmful effects of tobacco products.
  • Promote and fund research to develop and implement smoking and tobacco-use interventions that specifically target college students.
  • Lobby state legislatures for laws to forbid tobacco use on campus.