The Bad Air Sponge

The UC Irvine Health Education Center and the Student Taskforce Advocating Reducing Tobacco (START) hosted Smoke-Free Kiss, an event aimed both at helping smokers quit their addiction and preventing non-smokers from picking up the habit. Booths for the event were set up on Ring Mall in front of Humanities Hall on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14 and activities for the event lasted from noon to 3 p.m.

Activities featured a round of questions posed by START volunteers to passers-by and a free drawing with a prize of a bouquet of flowers and a $25 gift certificate to Islands Restaurant.

According to Jasmine Blackburn, the manager of Student Development and Tobacco at the Health Education Center, presenting smoking awareness through such carefree activities is more welcoming to students than showing them a photograph of a cancerous lung.

“I think [the activities are] more effective. … You get a lot of the scare tactics when you’re in grade school [and] high school,” Blackburn said.

Smoking policy at UCI was a key topic addressed by volunteers at the event. According to a 2005 student survey conducted by the Health Education Center, 94 percent of 302 students opted for some form of tobacco-related policy change on campus. According to Blackburn, START is currently working toward making the courtyard of the Student Center smoke-free.

Alice Wang, a first-year public health policy major who also volunteered at the event, compiled a list of questions to ask students in the hopes of informing them of the effects of tobacco. Such questions targeted the effects that tobacco has on pregnant women and the number of students smoking on college campuses.

According to Wang, the Smoke-Free Kiss Event was helpful because of its ability to inform smokers in a non-hostile way.

“I think it’s good that they’re relating it to love and kisses instead of condemning people for smoking,” Wang said.

During the event, two information packets were handed out to those who passed the Smoke-Free Kiss booths.

The first packet functioned as a quit kit for smokers and included a pamphlet titled “Becoming a Former Smoker.” The pamphlet included a list of how smokers could begin to quit their addiction, such as identifying the costs and benefits of being smoke-free as well as setting a start date to stop smoking.

The packet also included different objects intended to satisfy some of the cravings that smokers may get, such as a packet of Extra spearmint gum, a rubber band and an air freshener.

The gum is intended to address oral cravings, which would otherwise be satisfied by puffing on a cigarette; the rubber band gives smokers something to fiddle with in their hands; the air freshener replaces the smell of burning nicotine with a minty scent.

The second packet contained fewer items, bearing such gifts as stress balls so that students, who begin smoking because they are stressed out, can find other ways to relieve stress. The packet for non-smokers also came with a pink piece of paper containing the message “From this care package you are affirming the recipient’s decision to stay smoke-free or encouraging the recipient’s decision to quit smoking.”

Blackburn also suggested two services provided by the Health Education Center Smokers to smokers interested in quitting. The first service is a one-on-one series of meetings in which smokers meet with Health Education Center representatives and are able to talk about their smoking habits in a private atmosphere.

The scheduling of the sessions is particularly flexible since there are no restrictions on when they take place and smokers can plan to quit smoking without rearranging their schedules. The second service is for those who may not be ready to enter a one-on-one session. This program allows smokers to attend quit-smoking classes with other smokers. Classes are held on the first and third Wednesday of every month in the Health Education Center.

According to Blackburn, this is the third year that Smoke-Free Kiss was held on campus and volunteers at the event were able to distribute 180 packets. This year also marks a change in how the event was presented with less emphasis on activities and more attention was given to spreading facts about smoking. While this decision had some consequences, the change in policy also allowed more information to be distributed.

“We didn’t sell as many [raffling] tickets … but it was more informative,” Blackburn said.