Tobacco

One report states that 30% of college students continue to smoke even though tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. Do you know people who smoke? What influences others tobacco use? All it takes is 20 minutes of being tobacco-free for your body to start reversing the ill effects of smoking. How can you influence yourself or others to stop smoking?

" When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them."

Plato

Looking Back:
A Self-Reflection

When you think about your recent decisions about using tobacco, how satisfied are you?

Check out our worksheet.

Quiz Ideas

  • How much do you depend on nicotine? Nicotine is the chemical that makes you want to keep smoking. Take this quiz to find out.
  • Do you know all the ways tobacco affects people every year? Do you know how many people die every year due to tobacco? Use this test to check your knowledge.

Moving Ahead:
The Challenge

When you think about your decisions about tobacco use or non-use, what might you want to change?

Check out our worksheet.

Articles

Campus Resources

  • Wellness, Alcohol, and Violence Education and Services
    WAVES helps students make healthy, safe choices and encourage lifelong, thoughtful healthy decision-making through individualized support, creative, programming, and evidence-based education and outreach. They help students feel empowered and have the capacity to grow to their full potential and reach optimal wellness and well-being. WAVES offers information on alcohol including staying sober, sober rides, safer drinking, talking to others about their alcohol use and more.
  • Counseling and Psychological Services
    CAPS provides a wide range of free services to students, which are provided by a staff of professional clinical psychologists, social workers, counselors, learning specialists, and psychiatric providers. They offer individual counseling, group counseling, workshops, and outreach programs, as well as other resources.
  • Student Health Services
    Student Health Services provides high quality health care, counseling, health education and prevention services to George Mason University students. From diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury, to women’s and men’s health, to immunizations and prescriptions, Student Health Services is available to all Mason students with clinics at Fairfax, Arlington and Science and Technology Campuses. There is no charge to be seen by one of our healthcare providers. There are nominal fees for treatments, and supplies.

Additional Resources

  • Virginia Department of Health
    The Virginia Department of Health's Quit Now Virginia is a toll-free tobacco cessation phone counseling service that is provided to Virginia residents aged 13 and older 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Callers may receive one-on-one cessation counseling, information and self-help materials. The counseling offered by the specially trained Quit Coaches, combined with medication prescribed by healthcare providers, give the patient the best chance of quitting successfully. 
  • College Tobacco Prevention Resource
    CTPR aims to provide practical information, ideas, and guidance to assist college leaders with planning, implementing, and evaluating effective campus tobacco policies and programs. This site offers college tobacco facts, tobacco free campus examples, resources and more.
  • Smokefree
    Smokefree is intended to help individuals or someone they care about quit smoking. Smokefree allows people to choose the help that best fits their needs. This helps includes telephone hotlines, text messages, apps, quizzes, and materials to download at the national, local and states level.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    The CDC works to protect America from health diseases that start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack. They are dedicated to reducing the death and disease caused by tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. This site offers data, statistics, state and community resources, youth prevention, global control, and more.
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness
    NAMI offers information regarding smoking cessation. This information includes the benefits of quitting, tools for success, treatment and medication options, as well as additional resources.
  • American Lung Association
    The American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.  They offer a stop smoking page with information regarding smoking, quitting, workplace wellness, tobacco-free colleges and universities, and more.