Northeastern U. Goes Smoke-Free — Inside And Out

WBUR's Martha Bebinger reports that starting this fall, Northeastern University will join a growing number of college campuses that are smoke-free, both inside and out.

Northeastern Dean of Health Sciences Terry Fulmer says going smoke-free will save student's lives.

"If you smoke when you're younger, you're more likely to be addicted for life," Fulmer said. "So now is our opportunity to help them not get in a habit that will potentially be fatal."

Northeastern will use peer pressure and a campus education campaign — as opposed to penalties — to enforce the new policy. There's a free smoking cessation program for students and most faculty and staff can enroll through their insurance plan. Dean Fulmer says she does expect the ban on smoking to affect admissions.

Here's more on new smoke-free policy from Northeastern:

The deci­sion to go smoke-​​free dove­tails with Northeastern’s focus on solving global chal­lenges in health. According to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion, some 443,000 people die each year from smoking or expo­sure to second-​​hand smoke. What’s more, tobacco use is the single most pre­ventable cause of dis­ease, dis­ability, and death in the United States.

“This new policy reflects Northeastern’s long-​​standing com­mit­ment to pro­moting a healthy and safe envi­ron­ment,” said Terry Fulmer, dean of the Bouvé Col­lege of Health Sci­ences, in a cam­puswide memo on Monday. Fulmer is co-​​chair of the com­mittee along with John Auer­bach, director of the Insti­tute on Urban Health Research and Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Prac­tice in Bouvé’s Depart­ment of Health Sci­ences. “We look for­ward to updating the campus com­mu­nity in the coming months and working with stu­dents, fac­ulty, and staff as we join the more than 1,100 col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties across the nation—and among the first in the Boston area—that have taken this impor­tant step to pro­mote the health of uni­ver­sity campuses.”