Nicotine Use

SSU is a smoke and tobacco-free campus. This includes traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, hookah, snuff, vapes, and chewing tobacco, and encompasses all of Sonoma State’s indoor and outdoor areas. The Student Health Center is here to help students quit and remain tobacco free. Quitting is good for their health and it protects others from secondhand smoke. 

Interested in Quitting?

Make a physician or nurse practitioner appointment: Your provider can talk to you about options, including prescription medications that can help you quit tobacco for good. Nicotine replacement products, such as the gum and patch, can be purchased at a low price in the SHC Pharmacy.

Other Resources:

• Kick It California is a free program that helps Californians kick smoking, vaping, and smokeless tobacco with the help of proven, science-based strategies. 
• SmokeFree.gov: SmokeFree texting and app programs, information about Nicotine Replacement Therapies, and building a tobacco quit plan.
• American Cancer Society:  “Quit for Life Program” 1-800-227-2345 is a free phone-based coaching and web-based learning support service to help smokers quit with guidance from a quit coach.
• California Youth Advocacy Network
• California Department of Public Health, Tobacco Control Program

Are e-cigarettes less harmful than regular cigarettes?

While E-cigarette aerosol generally has fewer toxic chemicals than the 7,000 harmful chemicals in regular cigarettes, that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are safe. We’re now discovering that even e-cigarettes have several harmful additives and chemicals, and we’re seeing several cases of acute lung illnesses.

What are the health effects of vaping?

• Addiction: Just like regular cigarettes, vaping liquid typically has a high concentration of nicotine, which is very addictive.

• Development issues: Nicotine can damage brain development, which continues until age 25.  It can also damage learning, memory and attention. It’s also toxic for pregnant individuals and their developing babies.

• Cancer: Liquid flavorings in e-cigarettes contain chemicals, like diacetyl, that are linked to serious lung disease. The vaping aerosol can contain cancer-causing chemicals that reach deep into the lungs.

• Lung failure: EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury) can cause acute lung failure, hospitalization, and even death.