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Graduate students work to raise smoking ban in Toledo and surrounding cities

Lauren Gilbert, Copy Editor

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Groups all over the country are advocating to raise the legal smoking age to 21 as part of a national campaign, and one of those groups is here at the University of Toledo.

Debra Boardley, a graduate professor in public health, leads a course called Methods and Materials for Public Health. The class aims to introduce students to materials and methods used for public health education, and involves a community project.

After she learned about Tobacco 21 from Amy Thompson, her colleague and fellow health science professor, Boardley decided to use it as her Fall 2015 class project.

Tobacco 21 is a national advocacy campaign committed to reducing the number of smokers, and doing this by raising the legal age to 21. The organization believes that by raising the legal age, fewer people will begin smoking at such a young age, reducing the overall number of smokers, according to their website.

“Dr. Boardley and myself came up with this idea to work with our students on this topic, and we thought it would be something we could make change,” Thompson said. “The fact that just limiting the sale of tobacco could decrease youth smoking by half is pretty amazing … you could save lots of money, lives, health care costs — environmentally, it’s better. Really, there’s not a downfall to this.”

Now, months after the classes have ended, three students, Boardley and Thompson are still working on the project, with the added help of two undergraduate Central Michigan University students and a CMU professor.

This group of eight is based in the Center for Health and Successful Living, where Thompson is one of the directors for the center and the two CMU students are interns.

“It’s kind of rotating because it obviously takes a while to get ordinances passed,” said Mallory Rinckey a second-year public health graduate student and one of the students from Boardley’s class.

The group — and groups across the United States — are trying to talk to city councils of smaller cities before they talk to any large city councils. The local group has spoken to the city councils of Sylvania, Waterville and Oregon.

Rinckey said the reception in Sylvania and Waterville has been very good and that a lot of people have asked really good questions.

“We really like this ordinance because there’s already enforcement being done, so it’s not been an issue of enforcing … so there hasn’t really been an issue with business owners being that upset,” Rinckey said.

Rinckey said the only bit of resistance the group has had is that if people can join the military at age 18, why shouldn’t they be allowed to purchase cigarettes or other tobacco products at age 18?

“But that’s been the biggest issue,” Rinckey said. “Other than that people have been very supportive, they’ve said, ‘I wish that we had done this a while ago because I started when I was 15,’ and that’s how people get hooked.”

Thompson said even though underage people will find ways to use tobacco, raising the legal age will make it more difficult and eventually reduce the total number of new smokers.

“For a while, they decreased the alcohol drinking age to 18 and they realized that wasn’t a good idea and they raised it back to 21,” Thompson said. “Any time you pass a policy like this you’re going to make it harder, and by making it harder you’re going to reduce the total number new smokers and you’re going to cut down on the number of cigarettes smokes.”

Rinckey said that any community members are welcome to attend city council meetings or write advocacy letters to show their support.

There will also be two programs on March 15 where people can learn more or become involved. They will be held at 12 p.m. on the Health Science Campus and at 5 p.m. on Main Campus. Both events are free and open to the public.

 

“I hope people come out and hear because it really does have the ability to — in Boston, it cut teen smoking in half,” Boardley said.

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1 Comment

  • Vinny Gracchus

    Perhaps someone should organize a campaign to remove their rights and liberties too? Perhaps they should call the class “Methods and Materials for a Totalitarian Society?” Tobacco control isn’t about health; it’s about social control.

    [Reply]