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If you can’t smoke in your dorm, or on campus, or in your favorite bar or restaurant, it’s easier to quit and to stay quit. Ditto if you can’t buy cigarettes on campus. And higher cigarette prices could also influence young adults. [1] With nearly 40 percent of young adults smoking at least occasionally, the need for a targeted strategy is clear. Beyond awareness: Minnesota Partners for Healthy CampusesThe Minnesota Partners for Healthy Campuses project, run by Boynton Health Service at the University of Minnesota, addressed smoke-free campus policies, quitting assistance, and monitoring tobacco use rates among college students from 2006 to 2008. The project conducted a campus tobacco policy survey in Fall 2007. What’s happening out there? Student surveysSurveys conducted on multiple college campuses during Springs 2006 and 2007 gathered data not only about smoking behaviors but other important health behaviors as well. Some campuses like the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities have conducted a similar survey for many years so they can track changes over time. For other campuses, their first survey provides a baseline portrait of students’ behaviors. Either way, the surveys offered a great tool to help figure out what’s going on – and where we need to focus. Endnotes - Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2000. Available online at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/tobacco_use
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