Rob Hardin / Chief Photographer / rh124104@ohiou.edu

As he puffed on a cigarette while sitting outside Gordy Hall, Eric Sternad, a 19-year-old pre-college student, explained, “I have no reason to [quit smoking].”

“I’ll be done with it by the time I’m married and have kids and move on,” he said.

Despite understanding the dangers of smoking cigarettes, many colleges students like Sternad continue to light up.

“It gives me something to do,” Sternad said. “It gives me time to reflect and think about things.”

Cigarette smoking causes about 440,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. More Americans die from cigarette smoking than from “alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide and illegal drugs combined.”

For now, student smokers cite various reasons for maintaining the habit.

Josh Reith, a 21-year-old senior studying graphic design, said, “It’s the image I like, and obviously I’m addicted. It’s become a stress reliever, especially in college.”

According to a 1999 Harvard College Alcohol Study, about 33 percent of college students had used a tobacco product in the last 30 days.

A 2005 survey of Ohio University students found that out of 996 undergraduate respondents, 58 percent reported they did not smoke and 16 percent said they smoked daily, said George Mauzy, a spokesperson for OU.

A 2003 survey of OU students yielded similar results with 57 percent of 814 undergraduate respondents reporting they did not smoke and 15 percent saying they were daily smokers.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 29 percent of college student smokers increase the amount they smoke during college. Eleven percent of college student smokers start smoking during college.

Reith said that he had smoked a little before coming to OU, but he began smoking a pack a day during winter quarter of his freshman year.

Selina Rivera, a 22-year-old fifth-year senior at OU, said smoking was “something I picked up at school.”

Smoking with other employees outside Follett’s University Bookstore, 63 S. Court St., Rivera said she doesn’t smoke all the time. She said she usually smokes during her work breaks, around other people who smoke and when she goes uptown.

According to a 2004 Harvard School of Public Health study, about half of the college students that reported smoking in the past 30 days were social smokers, or smokers that usually smoked around others instead of alone.

Reith said that smoking is a good way to meet people, and although he’s tried to quit a few times, it’s hard because many of his friends and his girlfriend smoke.

According to the 2003 and 2005 surveys of Ohio University students, 7 percent of the respondents in both surveys said they were trying to quit, Mauzy said.

“I know I’m going to quit,” Selena said. She said she plans to quit when she enters the “adult world” or when she runs out of money.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the average price for a pack of cigarettes is about $4.50 nationwide.

“The way I see it, I’ll try (to quit) when I finish college,” Reith said. However, he acknowledged, “The longer I smoke the easier it is to rationalize why I smoke.”