Secondhand smoke exposure in the U.S. dropped by more than half from 1999 to 2012, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Jane Emmeree, co-chair of the UF Tobacco-Free Task Force, said UF policies have directly contributed to the reduction of secondhand smoke in Gainesville, specifically when the school began its smoke-free campus policy in July of 2010.
“I used to work in the infirmary building, and when I would walk around the campus I would always have smoke in my face,” she said. “People just walked with cigarettes, and it’s so rare now.”
Although cigarettes are becoming less common, the side effects of smoke are just as deadly.
“It affects your whole body, is what it boils down to,” said Kathy Nichols, associate director of the UF Area Health Education Centers. “There’s various debates about whether it’s 4,000 or 7,000 chemicals that you can find in secondhand smoke. But what’s not debatable is that we know it causes disease and death.”
Nichols added that many people are unfamiliar with thirdhand smoke, which comes from matter left over after a cigarette has been extinguished.
Brianna Kane, a 21-year-old UF psychology senior, said her parents spared her from the harmful toxins found in second and thirdhand smoke by smoking outside after Kane went to bed.
“I think when they grew up, smoking was just a common norm, and they never grew out of that. But when my brother and I were born, I don’t think they wanted that for us,” Kane said. “They tried to prevent us from being affected by it.”
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 2/6/2015 under the headline “Secondhand smoke down to the butt, CDC report suggests"]
