USU Wellness Center hosts Kick Butts week to help smokers quit
Kick Butts week at Utah State University is not just about quitting the tobacco habit, it’s also to remind smokers not to endanger other students with second-hand smoke.
“Kick Butts week is to help educate students and faculty at USU about the effects of second-hand smoke and the Utah Clean Air Act,” said Jescee Bennett, health education specialist for the university’s Wellness Center.
The state law, implemented in 1995, forbids smokers from lighting up within 25 feet of an open window, door or air-intake vent of public buildings.
This week, volunteers from the Wellness Center are putting up yellow tape and chalking areas around campus buildings to mark off the 25-foot no-smoking zone.
“Knowing we have made the Utah Clean Air Act visible on campus is a success,” Bennett said.
The Tobacco Task Force, made up of faculty, students and Wellness Center staff, also are ensuring that no-smoking signs at the university are visible.
“Life’s too short to worry about your health. Something’s going to get you in the end anyway,” Megan Montgomery, an English teaching major and a smoker, said,
Smoking, however, is the leading preventable cause of death today, according to the Wellness Councils of America. Smoking kills more people that AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires combined.
Barogan Ouvina, who is working toward his master’s degree in political science, said that when he has children of his own, he’ll quit.
“I don’t want to quite while I’m studying. When I’m drinking coffee or waiting for class, I smoke,” he said.
Chechu Pinilla, a liberal arts major and a 10-year smoker, insisted that he likes the taste of tobacco and the way it feels in his lungs.
“Hopefully one day I will get really tired of smoking and I will quit doing it,” he said.
The Wellness Center, located on 850 East 1200 North, offers smoking cessation classes. The seven, one-hour sessions meet one to two times per week. The cost is $20, with $10 refundable upon completion of the program.
Don’t be discouraged about quitting. The Wellness Council said it takes people an average of six attempts to quit for good and the chances of stopping successfully increase the more times a person has tried.
For more information, call the Utah Quit Line at 1-888-567-TRUTH, which is staffed by the Utah Department of Health from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, or visit www.utahquitnet.com.
-cpope@cc.usu.edu