Akira KOHAMA, Tomohiro MIYAMOTO, Masao KANAMORI, Masami KAWAI, Yuri ITOOKA, Terumi MORI Bulletin of Biwako Seikei Sport College 2- 81 -91 2004
Since its inception in April 2003, Biwako Seikei Sport College enforced a policy that bannedsmoking on campus for the first time in Japan(hereafter, the policy is called"no smokingpolicy").This research attempts to verify the effect of the no smoking policy at the collegeempirically, by observing the change in students'smoking behavior and awareness, withfixed point and continuous observation.Surveys are conducted twice a year(May and December). We plan to submit our finalreport after the end of the 2007 fiscal year. Currently we are presenting an interim reportwith corresponding results dictated below.(1)18.1% of male students smoked before they entered college whereas, 9.2% of femalestudents smoked. Immediately after entrance, the percentage of the smoking male studentsbecame 15.2%, after six months 19.3% and after a year, 22.8%. As for the female students, thepercentage of the smokers are 6.9%, 9.5%, 9.9% at each survey. The number of the smokingmale students increased slightly while the female students remained about the same.(2)Compared to another college which has not enforced the no smoking policy, thepercentage of smoking students who spent a year at the college is remarkably low concerningboys(47.4%)and approximately the same concerning girls(10.1%).(3)Typically the average number of cigarettes is about ten per day. Heavy smokers, whoconsume 20 or more cigarettes a day, are becoming rare among both boys and girls.(4)The ratio of students who stop smoking immediately after entrance is pretty high(25.7%). This indicates the policy has a beneficial(curative)effect on freshmen.(5)Smokers who answered"yes"to the question,"if you encounter someone who issmoking on campus, would you warn him/her?", was 32.4% while the nonsmoker who answered the same was 36.8%.