March 4, 2015

Wisconsin will soon celebrate five years of healthier, smoke-free workplaces.  On the eve of that milestone, it seems appropriate to also recognize the 25th anniversary of the U.S. law prohibiting smoking on U.S. airplanes, which passed on Feb. 25, 1990.

Tragically, over two million non-smokers have died from exposure to secondhand smoke in the last 50 years.  Statistics like that may make it hard to believe that smoking was ever allowed on airplanes, but at one time it was commonplace behavior.

While smoking is down significantly from the days of smoke-filled airplanes, challenges persist—like rising health care costs ($3 billion in Wisconsin annually from tobacco-related illnesses) and more young people using smokeless tobacco products. In short, the work to decrease tobacco’s burden on our state is far from over. That’s why UW-Whitewater’s Tobacco Free Campus Coalition is working toward a tobacco-free campus policy with Spark, Wisconsin’s young adult tobacco prevention program.

If you’re interested in working with us to pass a tobacco-free campus policy and helping educate our campus community about tobacco products or learning more about our efforts at UW-Whitewater, then please consider contacting the Tobacco Free Campus Coalition at [email protected] or visiting www.sparkwi.org.

Amanda Krentz
Wellness/AODA Educator