Promoting Tobacco-Free Environments

Tobacco Free Schools

School-based programs begin with creating and maintaining a tobacco-free atmosphere throughout the school system and continue with school-based education to promote and reinforce a tobacco-free norm

The CDC School Guidelines to tobacco use prevention recommend that all schools:

1. develop and enforce a school policy on tobacco use,
2. provide instruction about the short- and long-term negative physiologic and social consequences of tobacco use, social influences on tobacco use, peer norms regarding tobacco use, and refusal skills,
3. provide tobacco use prevention education in kindergarten through 12th grade,
4. provide program-specific training for teachers,
5. involve parents or families in support of school-based programs to prevent tobacco use,
6. support cessation efforts among students and all school staff who use tobacco, and
7. assess the tobacco-use prevention program at regular intervals.

As part of the Teen Smoking Prevention and Cessation Initiative, the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission has provided funding and services to lead the 100% Tobacco Free Schools campaign.

In North Carolina, 84 out of 115 school districts have a 100% tobacco-free school policy in place.  A 100% Tobacco-Free school has a policy that prohibits the use of tobacco products by anyone, including students, staff, and visitors, on school grounds or at school events at all times. This tobacco-free zone includes school premises, school vehicles, and school events, both indoors and outdoors, and both on and off school property. Today, there are more than half a million North Carolina youth with the benefits of a tobacco-free campus. All North Carolina school districts are encouraged to adopt this policy.

Further, the 2005 NC YTS data show that students attending high schools with established 100% tobacco-free school policies (defined as having the policy for at least four years) are 32% less likely to be tobacco users and 40 % less likely to be smokers than students without such policies. (see http://www.tobaccofreeschoolsnc.org). We strongly encourage the remaining 32 schools districts that have not passed a 100% tobacco-free school policy to act now.