COLLEGE PARTNERS WITH HOSPITAL AND CITY OF COTTLEVILLE
FOR ‘GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT’ ACTIVITIES

Tobacco-Free Environment Is Goal for SCC Campus Starting Jan. 1

    St. Charles Community College on Thursday, Nov. 16, observed the 30th annual Great American Smokeout with a mayoral proclamation, smoking cessation awareness activities, and a visit from the Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital Tobacco-Free Lifestyle Team.

    Activities began with Don Yarber, mayor of Cottleville, presenting a proclamation to John McGuire, SCC president, encouraging all cigarette smokers and smokeless tobacco users on campus and in the community to quit for the day. The annual Smokeout event emphasizes that each year a significant number of people who are willing to give up cigarettes for a day are subsequently able to give up the habit entirely, according to the American Cancer Society. Every year, millions of smokers in the U.S. have participated in the Smokeout.

    In presenting the proclamation, Mayor Yarber praised the recent decision by college officials to go “tobacco free” throughout the entire campus beginning Jan. 1. President McGuire thanked student leaders as well as college employees for their support and assistance during an ongoing tobacco-free awareness campaign that has the theme “A Healthy Environment for Healthy Living.”

    The American Cancer Society estimates that this year, more than 450,000 Americans will die prematurely of diseases linked to smoking. “That is as many Americans as have been killed in all the wars fought in this century,” McGuire emphasized.

    The Great American Smokeout day’s activities on campus included a display of 100 pairs shoes surrounding the College Center Rotunda. The shoes represented the number of Missouri deaths each month that are related to tobacco use. Members of a Tobacco-Free Lifestyle Team from Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital provided health screenings, answered questions, and distributed smoking cessation literature.

    In addition, Don Young, a St. Charles throat cancer survivor, spoke to students and the public, using a mechanical device called an electralarynyx, about the dangers of smoking. Young lost his voice due to the cancer. He speaks to approximately 40,000 students a year and warns them of the consequences of smoking.

    To encourage a tobacco-free environment, effective September 1, 2006, Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital now prohibits all forms of tobacco use on the hospital campus. Similarly, St. Charles Community College will prohibit tobacco use on the campus beginning January 1, 2007.

    The college’s Board of Trustees approved the new tobacco-free campus policy last July following a report by a college task force and the recommendation of the administration. Smoking has been prohibited for many years inside college buildings, but the new policy would prevent tobacco use anywhere on campus.

    “It’s the right step to take because we are responsible for providing a healthy and safe environment in which to learn and to work,” McGuire said in presenting the policy. Board members agreed.

    SCC will become the third community college statewide to ban tobacco. Ozark Technical Community College in Springfield led the way in August 2003, followed by State Fair Community College, Sedalia, in June 2006.  Locally, a number of hospitals have announced they are banning smoking on their premises and other public officials in various municipalities also have discussed the issue.

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