By Kitt Wolfenden
Northeastern’s new Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) chapter plans to mark Lung Cancer Awareness Month by hosting the Great American Smokeout on campus Thursday, Nov. 20.
The aim of the annual, nationwide event is to keep campuses smoke-free for 24 hours, encourage students to make positive lifestyle changes and spread awareness about the negative consequences of smoking, said Alicia Jones, CAC’s publicity chair.
“Sometimes people want to quit but haven’t had anything to push them or anyone to encourage them. We want people to use this day as a jumpstart towards quitting,” Jones said.
CAC will also use the event to assess support for a year-round smoke-free policy on campus.
“We’re going to have a petition, and anyone who comes up to the table can sign it. We want to open this up for discussion,” said CAC President Emily Moray.
Posters and “thank you for not smoking” signs will be displayed across campus, and from noon to 4 p.m. “quit kits” containing information and resources will be given out in the Curry Student Center Quad and Centennial Commons, Moray said. At 2:40 p.m., 20 silent students with smoking-related facts pinned to all-black attire will congregate at Centennial Commons as their facts are read aloud to onlookers. One of the facts, Moray said, might be that over 3,000 people die every year from secondhand smoke.
The Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT) will contribute volunteers and information to the event.
“The main goal of HEAT is to implement environmental sustainability on campus,” said Molly Barker, HEAT’s external affairs coordinator. “People don’t know how terrible cigarettes are for the environment, and we want to increase awareness.”
Smoking causes air pollution, Barker said.
“Cigarette butts release additives into the ground that pollute soil and plants, and in just one hour, a cigarette manufacturing plant requires four miles of paper and packaging.”
Marissa Ender, a freshman engineering major, said she smokes cigarettes and would oppose a smoke-free policy on campus.
“I think that a [smoke-free policy] would bother me a lot,” she said. “There are a lot of Northeastern students who smoke, and to make people leave campus to do it just gives students extra work on top of everything else.”
CAC, which Moray founded during the summer, has hosted 10 events since the semester began. She said that the group has grown adept at holding events, but she spoke to the unique difficulties of the Great American Smokeout.
“It’s incredibly challenging, the most challenging event we’ve had so far. It’s our first year, and manpower and awareness are difficult,” she said. “There are a couple thousand smokers here, and ashtrays everywhere. It’s an addiction: It’s hard to quit. Some people don’t want to, and some people do but don’t have the resources.”
Despite the difficulties, Moray said her group’s work has great importance to the university.
“If we decrease the amount of people who start to smoke and decrease secondhand smoke lung cancer, we can decrease death rates,” Moray said. “Any decrease is a success. If we reach one person who quits, even for a week, or if just a few people get a little more information, it’s a success.”
Spencer Manasse, CAC’s cancer advocacy chair, was hopeful yet realistic about the Smokeout event.
“If we’re able to have one person stop smoking because of what we did, that’s one life that we’ve saved, and that to me will be a success,” he said. “I don’t think that after Thursday we will have a smoke-free campus, but we can raise awareness, reduce consumption and let people know they have somewhere to go if they want to quit.”
