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Inhaling smoke, especially cigarettes smoke, can harm smokers and even non-smokers health. That is mean that secondhand smoke (SHS) is not only harmful, but it is a possible health concern for many people, especially for college students. That’s why administrators should be taking steps to reduce students' exposure.

Anti-tobacco investigators also found that the tobacco smoke is more dangerous to their health than the nicotine. This is the first study to provide evidence of the high rates of SHS exposure, and correlates of exposure, among college students in the United States.

Mark Wolfson, Ph.D. professor and section head for the Section on Society and Health in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, reported: "It is well-known that there are some serious health issues surrounding secondhand smoke."

Wolfson found that tobacco smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes contains over 4,000 chemical compounds and breathable, suspended particles. For example, while some college campuses are smoke free, others have in fact no restrictions on smoking, not even in the residence halls. There is a growing national movement to move away from that, but it still very much varies by campus.

In this first study to evaluate SHS exposure among college students, the researchers were really kind of floored to see how many, and how frequently, students are exposed to it. For the study, researchers enrolled 4,223 undergraduate college students from 10 North Carolina Universities, eight public and two private. They were asked questions about their drinking and smoking habits, demographics (age, gender, race, and parents’ education level), lifestyle (residence on- or off-campus, living in a substance-free dormitory, participation in a fraternity or sorority) and SHS exposure.

Of the participants, 83 percent reported having been exposed to SHS at least once in the seven days preceding the survey. Most of those exposures (65 percent) happened at a restaurant or bar, followed by exposure at home or in the same room as a smoker (55 percent) and in a car (38 percent). Every day and occasional smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to report exposure, maybe because they are more likely than other students to have friends who smoke and to frequent or live in locations where smoking occurs.

Researchers also found that students who consume drinks were also more likely than other students to report exposure to SHS. There are a lot of factors which contribute to secondhand smoke exposure. For example, living in residence locations where smoking is allowed or locations associated with smoking, such as Greek houses and off-campus housing, being female, of white race, having parents with higher education levels and attending a public versus private school.

Walfson concluded: "We were really shocked to see that 83 percent of students reported at least some exposure during the previous week. And we don't know if the exposure was at an inconvenience level or at a level that might affect the people’s health. Either way, knowing what we know about SHS, lowering the rates of smoking is definitely something we should be seriously looking at on college campuses."

Recent studies suggested also that most colleges do not have a complete ban on smoking. In fact, in another study of the largest public university in each of the 50 states, researchers found that only 54 percent of schools banned smoking inside student housing and 50 percent banned smoking outside building entrances. As a result, college students are likely to be exposed to SHS regularly.