At Elizabethtown College, smoking is on the decline; nationwide, vaping is not.
Juuls in particular have become a fixture of Gen Z and Millennial society. Small, convenient and easily accessible, they have become popular in the last year.
In discussion with a few of the shrinking number of Etown students who smoke, none whom wanted to be named—all regretted their decision to start.
One personal account noted that problems can emerge more quickly than most new smokers expect.
“I’ve noticed I can’t breathe quite as easily anymore.”
It is universally acknowledged that smoking—even “secondhand smoking”—carries serious health risks, and college, hospital and hotel campuses have taken steps to mitigate the effects.
The designated smoking location policy is a standard and well-accepted feature of most campuses, including Etown, but these policies are often not enforced.
Nonsmoking senior Darien Alleyne mentioned that it is “not uncommon” to see people smoking while walking around campus.
“The policy probably exists to give the school an excuse to get inconsiderate smokers to stop. Most smokers that don’t follow the policy aren’t too annoying about it, so there’s not much of a reason to crack down,” Alleyne said.
In contrast, Pennsylvania State University has had a strictly enforced smoking and tobacco ban since January, and some schools in major cities such as Temple University, have begun moving toward such policies. In larger, more urbanized settings, enforcement tends to be stricter, as there is often less physical space for nonsmokers to avoid secondhand smoke.
Some smokers at Elizabethtown have noted that the ashtrays which once adorned the designated smoking areas have in large part disappeared, but the reasons for this are unclear.
One smoking student speculates that this may have been intended to discourage people from smoking, “but now I just see more cigarette butts on the ground around campus.”
Another drew attention to the distinctions between vaping and smoking.
“With vaping, you can get the same nicotine fix, but you miss the experience of smoking. It could help some people quit but not everyone,” the student said.
The use of vape mods and products like the Juul to help smokers cut back or stop is controversial. For now, research indicates that Juuling, specifically, is probably not as bad as smoking because it does not involve combustion. However, there are still substantial drawbacks and risks.
Other vaping products include the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked to the development of popcorn lung.
While Juuls do not include diacetyl, they do contain more nicotine per puff than some cigarettes, are more expensive on average than smoking and are still linked to breathing problems, addiction, smelling like a Lush kiosk designed by Stephen King and general irritation.
On campus, there exists a perception that vaping is a kind of scam, sophomore student Mercedes Geiger has noted the impact of the profit motive for tobacco companies to keep kids hooked.
“It’s an attempt to get younger generations back into tobacco,” Geiger said.
There have been significant attempts by state and local governments to curtail vaping and e-cigarette use, especially among teenagers.
This week, Vermont’s state legislature passed a 92 percent tax on vaping products and devices, in part to make it harder for people to start using them in the first place.
State Representative George Till (D–Jericho) noted that studies have shown “kids who start with [vaping] are four times more likely to become regular smokers.”
Some other students at Etown have more proximate concerns.
“The fire alarms in Founders already go off more than enough, and it makes me wheezy,” one student said.
