Humber College student Aaste Iverson expressed her support for the college’s smoke-free campus policy but noted that she still smokes during school. She believes that a “cold-turkey” approach to quitting smoking isn’t as easy as it may seem.
Iverson, 25, a first-year student in Humber College’s film and television production program, said she even considered quitting after she received an offer of admission into the school.
“Of course, I would like to quit, but I’ve kind of always told myself that if I’m going to quit, it’s got to be something I really want to do. Otherwise, it’s just going to be really hard,” Iverson said.
Humber College and the University of Guelph-Humber went smoke-free on Jan. 1, 2019 in an effort to promote a healthy learning, working and living environment for the community. Their goal is to “become the healthiest campus in Canada.” The college joined 15 other Ontarian post-secondary institutions that have gone smoke-free since 2018, according to a report conducted by the Canadian Cancer Society.
When Iverson first visited the campus last year, she used one of the designated smoking areas that were stationed for public use, but those have since been removed.
Iverson says that while the campus should be comfortable for everyone, she wishes Humber kept the designated smoking areas since it’s difficult to leave property between classes.
“It’s ironic,” said Iverson. “They don’t want you to be late. So really, they’re just trying to direct you to your only option which is to quit. And that’s a good thing, but it’s also not really the way addiction works or the way humans work.”
Iverson, along with others who smoke on the property, finds private areas in the parking lot and behind the residence buildings.
“I do see security,” she said. “I’ve never seen them stop someone from smoking, but I also don’t think I’ve ever seen a security guard in the proximity of a person smoking.”
Rob Kilfoyle, director of public safety and emergency management at Humber College, said smoking on campus is not a high-value incident.
According to Kilfoyle, the majority of students approached by security guards either throw away their cigarettes or leave the property to smoke. He says, however, that security stops giving out warnings after they have to approach the same person a third time.
“Individuals that refuse to identify themselves to us are then told they’re in violation of policy,” said Kilfoyle. “They need to leave the property, or they’ll be trespassing and then we call the police. But generally, we do get compliance.”
Kilfoyle said his team has been directed to take an educational approach when addressing someone who is caught smoking by reminding them of the policy change.
Julian Bommarito, a fourth-year kinesiology student at the University of Guelph-Humber agrees that education, in general, is the best approach to quit smoking.
Smoking became unappealing to Bommarito after learning about its health effects through taking courses about pathophysiology which is the study of changes in the human body after coming into contact with certain diseases.
Although he sympathizes with those who still smoke on campus, Bommarito insists that everyone should learn about the effects of smoking on the human body.
“Knowledge is power,” said Bommarito. “Learning about the progression and what every puff of smoke does to your body, I think it hits home more than just telling someone to quit smoking because it’s bad for them.”