In the Press

April 2016

TAG President Nick Fradkin was featured in the UW Daily in regards to the Huskies Kick Butts Day event:

“’Why we’re not taking action, especially when the board of environmental health and safety unanimously recommended a tobacco-free campus policy exactly one year ago to president [Ana Mari] Cauce and interim provost [Gerald] Baldasty, baffles me,’ Fradkin said.”

March 2016

An article in the UW Daily discussed a TAG event and an invited guest lecture by Dr. Alan Blum, the director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama, on the damaging marketing techniques of the tobacco industry. This talk was to initiate discussion on the industry’s influence on tobacco use and the potential implications of more stringent tobacco policies:

“Changing habits is a big part of quitting smoking, a point that many in the audience could agree on. That is why the UW Tobacco Action Group is trying to get the university to become a 100 percent tobacco-free campus. According to the Americans for Nonsmokers Rights, as of Jan. 1, there are at least 1,475 college campuses across the country who have already made the move to being tobacco-free, and over 1,200 that are smoke free entirely.”

November 2015

Op-ed

In support of the 1DayStand event, TAG member Elizabeth Medeiros published an op-ed in the UW Daily discussing the current tobacco policy climate at UW and the need and urgency for pursuing a comprehensive tobacco-free policy:

“Although most individuals are misinformed about the deadly marketing tactics of the tobacco industry, the extensive dangers of smoking, and the benefits of implementing a tobacco-free policy, UW leadership needs to make the executive decision to protect students and others by implementing a 100 percent tobacco-free policy on campus. Research has shown that the majority of college students, including those who smoke, support tobacco-free policies, and that most people who smoke want to quit. This evidence, coupled with broad support from students, faculty, and staff, obligates UW leadership to act accordingly.”

Movie screening

Following a film screening of “Merchants of Doubt,” the UW Daily reported on this collaborative event between TAG, UW American Lung Association, and the UW Student Public Health Association:

“The film’s title stems from the tobacco industry’s history of denying scientific fact. Cigarette companies actively advertised cigarettes as only possibly hazardous, despite evidence proving they were carcinogenic. Said skepticism causes gridlock in creating positive, national anti-tobacco policies. Focusing on politics hits home, especially for TAG, as they campaign for smoking bans at the UW. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Fresh Air Campus Challenge suggests the creation of smoke-free policies by the end of 2016. Today, TAG brings the initiative to Seattle.”

April 2015

An article by UW Daily’s writer Laura Mishkin featured Huskies Kick Butts Day, an annual event to support a clean academic environment and promote the need for a tobacco-free campus policy:

“’The presence of tobacco has an effect of normalizing it,” [Patricia] Atwater said. “When people are used to tobacco use, they are more likely to smoke themselves.’”