By Thompson Perry

When Sandra Tune came to the University of Louisville in the fall of 2003, she had never puffed a cigarette in her life. When the senior communication major graduates in May, however, she will most likely be battling a full-fledged addiction.

Though it offers little comfort, Tune knows that she is not alone. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Emory University, the number of college students who reported smoking daily increased by 40 percent in the last decade.

“It is a terrible habit, in my opinion,” said Tune, “but the only thing worse than smoking is not smoking.”

Tune is exactly the kind of U of L student that the minds behind the “Become a Non-Smoker” program hope to help overcome their addiction. The program will utilize the Cooper-Clayton Method, which the program touts as “a safe and effective way to help people stay smoke-free for the rest of their lives.”

“I think that it’s definitely a positive thing that U of L is offering this kind of service to its students,” said Colin Mudd, a freshman philosophy major. “A college university should help its students have bright futures, and sometimes that means more than just a degree.”

The program will include relapse prevention, in the hopes that students will not only get smoke-free, but stay that way long-term as well.

Remember that a cigarette burns for only five minutes,” the Clayton-Cooper Method brochure stated. “It would not be a good decision to risk years of quality life as a nonsmoker for five minutes with a burning stick that you suck on 10 times and discard.”

It is common knowledge that quitting smoking is a difficult task for anyone, and that many attempt to do so unsuccessfully. Still, this shouldn’t deter students from trying, and the 40-45 percent success rate of the Clayton-Cooper Method, according to its Web site, offers encouragement to aspiring non-smokers.

The benefits of quitting smoking are as plentiful as they are well-documented: half of all smokers who continue to smoke will die of a smoking-related illness, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. According to the same report, smokers are twice as likely to die from heart attack than their non-smoking peers. Furthermore, based on data collected in the last decade, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.

The non-smoking classes, which include education, skills training and social support, meet for one hour each Friday until April 4 in Room 15 of the Crawford Gym. To enroll, e-mail ghn@louisville.edu.