According to a new report released by the American Lung Association (ALA), an unacceptably high number of college students continue to smoke cigarettes. One out of five college students continue to smoke, and the reason, feels the association, is the aggressive tobacco industry marketing on college campuses.

The findings compiled in a report, "Big Tobacco on Campus: Ending the Addiction" provides a detailed overview of the current status of tobacco use and policies on college and university campuses.

Though the report said fewer college students were found to be smoking than ever before, the American Lung Association cautioned that smoking rates were low in 1989 after which they went up to a new peak of 30.6 %

Bernadette A. Toomey, American Lung Association President and CEO said, “The industry's return on investment is staggering. Nearly 20 percent of today's college students are regular smokers. Even worse is their continued campaign to increase these numbers. Every college student in America has a target on their back as far as the tobacco industry is concerned.”

The report said that in 2005 more than $ 1 million a day was spent by the tobacco industry sponsoring events and giveaways targeting college students. 109 schools, out of the 119 surveyed, recalled seeing tobacco promotions in an event on campus.

College students are social smokers and more fluid in their smoking habits as compared to adults, says the report, which means that they easily move from daily to occasional smoking. This fluidity indicates that the habit could easily be reduced or stopped simply by timely intervention. "Tobacco companies exploit vulnerability among young smokers by sponsoring promotions in bars, nightclubs, and other venues to encourage smoking as a social norm, moving them from an 'experimenter' to a 'mature' smoker," the report states.

Many students view smoking as a social norm and the American College Health Association in 2006 reported that although 86 % of college students felt that their peers smoked at least one cigarette a month data from that same survey showed that actually that just 22 % of college students smoked cigarettes at some point in the preceding 30 days.

Colleges and universities, in Toomey’s opinion "have a responsibility to provide safe spaces in which their students can learn and live. This should include an environment free from secondhand smoke and advertising that encourages young adults to use deadly tobacco products."

The answer feels the American Lung Association is in the higher education community joining the Smokefree Air 2010 Challenge. This is a nationwide movement to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke in public places and workplaces no later than 2010 as well as to reduce smoking-related illnesses, by implementing some policies and initiatives in this school year. Some of the policies they recommend are:

*Prohibiting the use of tobacco at all indoor and outdoor facilities, private offices, residence halls and dormitories.
*Stop the sale and advertising of tobacco products on publications that are on campus and controlled by the college.
*Refuse all funding and sponsorship from the tobacco industry for research.
*Provide smoking cessation programs to all students, faculty and staff.
*Educate students and faculty about the harmful effects of tobacco.
*Lobby state legislatures to create laws to prohibit tobacco use on campus.