By Rigoberto Banta Jr., Head Student Editor

 

 

  Smoking is somewhat embedded in Korean culture: most Korean adults, specifically men, are part of the huge tobacco market in this country. According to a health data published in 2011, Korea has the second highest number of smokers amongst OECD countries at 44.3 percent, next to Greece with 46.3 percent. The repercussions of smoking such as coronary heart disease and lung cancer top the list of the all-time causes of death in this nation. The efforts of the central government to curb this very alarming number has been extensive specially this year with plans to increase tax for tobacco products and a more intensive promotion to prevent smoking.

 

The reason smoking should be cut down for the smoker boils down to health. Programs offered to the public are focused on providing more education to the health repercussions of smoking to the smokers themselves. This is similar to the efforts of Chonnam National University (CNU) on its stance to smoking. The CNU Health Center, head of the anti-smoking campaign on campus, believes that education is the best solution for smoking. “In the end, student smokers need to know the repercussions about smoking and they need to solve this problem on their own.”While the end goal is to curb the number of the smoking population, hard-line and passive practices such as education and tax proliferation might not provide the best results. Smoking not only affects the smoker himself but the environment as well as other people around him.

 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare in a May 2012 statement said that “If teenagers continue to smoke, the damage from smoking will become more severe in the next 20.” This poses that the efforts to curb smoking should be in the lower age groups, specifically the 20 age group. Universities should be the first place to be looked at for these efforts to be more efficient.

 

A group of students from Chonnam National University (CNU) taking Environmental Science, tried to look for solutions about the smoking problem by talking with the student smokers themselves. In their discussions and interviews they saw that there is a deeper problem lingering when we talk about smoking.

 

“Smoking became my habit—it gives me time to think, arrange my thoughts and relieve stress. It provides me a time for myself,” says a student smoker that they have interviewed. One major concern about smokers is overcoming the insurmountable pressure that they receive. Smoking became an outlet for this. Smoking has become a negative icon as it does not only pollute the air but basically litters and upsets spaces intended for public use. Around campus, we can see that there are lots of areas where cigarette butts are scattered, spit marks stain the ground and empty cigarette packs all around. Do smokers smoke intentionally to irk people around them?

 

“As much as I can, I try to smoke where there is no one around. However, there is a lack of spaces for smokers around campus and I am forced to smoke wherever convenient when the surge comes,” says another student smoker. This calls for the attention of the CNU administration to be active in pursuing collaborative ideas from both the smoker and non-smokers. What are the ways to engage with both smokers and non-smokers, give a solution to the high stress-levels of students and as well as to lead in the long-term goal of curbing smoking itself?

 

Through the interviews and discussion thatthey group had, they concluded that while there is a need to curb the number of smokers on campus, CNU needs to provide for the needs to the smokers first. CNU should divide the places for smokers and non-smokers and set-up ash trays and smoking areas accessible to the needs of smokers which will not affect non-smokers. With this, CNU will protect everyone’s intentions. These smoking places should be aesthetically pleasing as well, not as to promote smoking itself, but to promote the usage of the smoking facilities. This will as well be very pleasant to the smoking population in the academe and administration.

 

Next, with setting up smoking areas, after a period of execution, CNU should set-up penalties for smokers on campus. This is a very lofty plan, however, with the proactive participation of the administration in providing for the welfare of smokers, it will gradually be possible. The smoking places can contain smoking-related materials posted on the wall to softly deliver the message about the repercussions of smoking. Posting gross pictures of mutated body parts due to smoking will only more so encourage smoking because smokers will not look at it.

 

The administration should encourage actively that tobacco alternatives should be available easily in different convenient stores around campus. Electronic cigarettes, discount on nicotine patches as well as selling pocket ashtrays will be a good solution. The promotion to merchandise these alternatives should be targeted.

 

Last but not the least, support levels should be promoted. The stress levels that students receive in CNU and in Korean universities boost the chances of students to smoke. By providing healing lectures and special events related to relieving one’s stress levels will be the best solution that will increase the utilities of everyone, smoker or not.

 

Smoking has been one of the most quintessential issues that we face in the environment, sometimes not seriously faced as we tend to look at it in the individual level. Looking at it in a larger perspective, its repercussions affect everyone negatively and needs to be addressed in a serious manner. Smokers or not, this issue need the support and interest or everyone for the benefit of the generations to come.