Why The Citadel is going tobacco-free: The Citadel is committed to providing a safe and healthy learning and working environment for our cadets, students, faculty, staff and visitors and recognizes that tobacco use in any form is a significant health hazard. As a result, effective July 1, 2016, The Citadel will become a tobacco product free campus.
View detailed information on the policy.
View letter commending The Citadel’s new tobacco-free policy.
Facts on tobacco use:
- Each day, more than 3,200 people under 18 smoke their first cigarette, and approximately 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers.
- More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964, including approximately 2.5 million deaths due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
- An average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.
- Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, and 90% of lung cancer deaths among men and approximately 80% of lung cancer deaths among women are due to smoking.
- Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia.
- Data suggests that men, young adults (aged 18–24 years), and those with a high school education or less are more likely to use smokeless tobacco.
- Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens).