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IE Smoking Culture: Trend or not? Yay or Nay?


Info-graphics: Laura Ortega Pastor

You might have started to notice a new form of smoking, other than cigarettes, and this is the so-called “vape”. More specifically, the “Juul”. Even though 59% of the survey respondents identify themselves as “non-smokers”, 95% of both non-smokers and smokers believe that a lot of people smoke in IE. This said, let’s take a look at IE smoking culture and the latest trend in smoking.

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid to promote JUUL*

“E-cigarettes”, include e-cigs, vapes, vape pens, mode, tanks, and most recently, new products like “JUUL” which have created terms such as “JUULing”. The survey revealed that the most common one in IE was “e-cigs” and “pocket vapes”. If you are completely lost right now, they look similar to this.

Now, 77% of you heard through word of mouth or friends, but for those who didn’t, what is JUUL? Well, JUUL is a new type of e-cigarette, which has nearly half of the e-cigarette market share. The Boston Globe called it “the most widespread phenomenon you’ve likely never heard of.”

Basically, it is a device that heats up a cartridge that contains oil to create vapor. It is small and looks like a USB flash drive. If you don’t believe me, judge yourself.

It comes in different flavors, but there is a clear preference for some. In the survey, 49% of people said mint was their favourite.

But, why did people start to smoke JUUL or vapes? Is it because it is healthier? Is it just easy to get?

Results showed that 60% of the JUUL users in the survey got it from friends and 28% from the Internet. One of the main reasons for this change was that it is easily accessible and convenient.

According to the product website, a single JUUL cartridge is roughly equal to a pack of cigarettes or 200 cigarette puffs. Therefore, it is not clear if they are healthier of not, but what is definitely true is that they still have nicotine. Truth Initiative says “e-cigarettes contain far fewer toxins than combustible cigarettes, but they are not free of toxins and they still deliver harmful chemicals.” They conducted a survey that found that “63% of JUUL users didn’t know that this product always contains nicotine.”

Nicotine is bad for health, that is a general statement. But did you know that according to experts, "15 cigarettes are what is needed to generate a mutation in your body”? In December 2017, a study by the University of Pittsburgh found out that “young adults who use e-cigs are four times more likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes within 18 months than their peers who do not vape.”

But how do “non-smokers” in IE feel about this? What the survey revealed was that people hate the smell of tobacco. But they generally don’t mind the vape smell.

It’s not surprising that non-smokers and smokers in IE do have some differences. Or at least this is what the survey showed. But there is also some common ground. Keep reading!

87% of non-smokers get annoyed when people smoke around them. 53% of them said that “a lot of people from their social circle smoke.” This means that the majority of non-smokers feel annoyed with smokers, yet in the survey, only 54.5% of the smokers expressed that they knew their friends minded if they smoked around them. So yes, smokers, your non-smoker friends don’t like you to smoke around them. However, it is true that 85% of them said they “consciously smoke away from people.”

Why Should We Care About This?

We all have different opinions on smoking and we are old enough to know what we should and should not do. But as always, we need to respect each other's decisions. Hence, if non-smokers don’t smoke, we should respect that. This leads us to the topic of “passive smoking,” and why it would be a good idea for you to smoke away from your friends.

Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that “even 30 minutes of exposure to other people’s smoke might be enough to trigger a fatal heart attack in people at risk of heart diseases.” Also, according to Professor Robert West, an expert on smoking at University College of London, “the risk of cancer for a daily smoker is 15 times higher than for a non-smoker.”

That being said, and building on the fact that we all know the bad effects of nicotine, let’s see the reasons why people decide to smoke or not.

For non-smokers, the conclusion is that tobacco is unhealthy, smells bad and gives you cancer. However, 54% have tried a cigarette.

For smokers, the conclusion is that they tried it partying and continued doing it, it is easy to get it and a way to socialize. On that note, do IE students really think smoking can help you socialize? Seeing that 97% of non-smokers and 95% smokers think that “a lot of people in IE smoke,” then smoking could be a way to socialize just for the fact of “how many people do it.”

However, even though only 40% of people smoke, 95% of the respondents perceive a lot of people smoking, possibly having a distorted version of the reality. El Confidential reported on studies that prove that 60% of the cigarettes are smoked for social reasons. In our survey, 64% of the non-smokers believe that smoking does, in fact, help you socialize. But most of them commented on how the consequences outdo the benefits, and they would rather remain non-smokers.

On this question, 59% of non-smokers said Yes or Maybe. On the other hand, 83% of smokers said Yes or Maybe. This results could mean that the current smokers have in fact been influenced to smoke because of the University environment. Considering that 52% of the students have been smoking for 1-3 years, the years at University most of us have done, this could be a possibility.

“Everyone smokes and influences others to smoke. Before coming, I had never tried any type of smoke and ended up trying for the first time here, but only vapes and nicotine-free flavors”, a respondent said.

As previously stated, non-smokers and smokers in IE are not that different. In brief, they see this culture as “too much,” and they feel that it generates a waste problem in both campuses. Multiple comments coming from smokers and non-smokers suggested the idea of having special “smoking areas” and even asking for IE to revise the smoking policy, suggesting that there should be something done with the waste because people do not clean up.

As you can see, 72.1% of non-smokers think there might or there is a problem with cigarette waste around campus, together with the 78.1% of smokers.

Conclusions

Taking into account the answers received, is this something that IE should ban? Or is there no way they can control it because of nicotine addiction? Again, how could IE provide “smoking areas” when 40% of the people smoke? Would there be space to consider this? It is a difficult decision and surely a very polemic one, so only time will let us see.

And to finish, I leave you the best comments I received on the survey!

“We are all slowly killing ourselves, yet we enjoy it and we do it together.”

“Way too much of it, especially on the Segovia campus where if you want to leave the campus you have to smell cigarettes and it's horrible.”

“They should build boxes for them or something, because every time I go in and out of uni, I get smoked at.”

“I think it's ridiculous and very old fashioned that people are allowed to smoke in all the outside areas of the Segovia campus - it's really annoying and disgusting for the people that don't smoke and are bothered by it every day. IE should be modern enough to restrict smoking to certain areas.”

“As I said, a lot of people here smoke, which to me is strange considering we are all 18-23. In the US, I had never seen such a dependency on tobacco at this ages.”

“I’ve always been someone who wasn’t into the idea of smoking, but when I’m drunk, sudden temptations occur.”

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