UCLA campus will become smoke-free in 2013

UCLA will go smoke-free and tobacco-free on April 22, 2013, Chancellor Gene Block says. The new policy will prohibit the use of cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and all other tobacco products, as well as electronic cigarettes, on UCLA's campus and at sites owned or fully leased by the university.

UCLA is the first campus in the University of California system to announce when it will go tobacco-free. Nationwide, more than 800 colleges and universities already have adopted tobacco-free or smoke-free policies.

The university's policy will emulate the best practices of other universities' tobacco-free programs, which have led to an increase in the number of people quitting smoking, says UCLA nursing professor Linda Sarna, chair of the Tobacco-Free Steering Committee and an oncology nurse with international expertise in tobacco-control policies.

A 2010 survey across eight University of California campuses found that about 8 percent of undergraduates older than18 had used tobacco products during the previous month. About 12 percent of California adults use tobacco, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health.
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MORE: Read Block's letter.