Tucked away in the collar of her coat, a student stands outside the gates to the School of Business and Economics (SBE) on Tongersestraat, looking a little forlorn. Her left hand scrolls on her phone, her right hand holds a cigarette. “I’m from Croatia, everybody smokes there,” is her laughing response when asked why she smokes. “It’s the example set by your environment, by your parents. When we turn twelve, they just hand you a cigarette and a glass of alcohol, so to speak.”
She was fifteen when she started, a pupil at secondary school, and as a first-year at SBE, now twenty years old, she just hasn’t quit the habit yet. “Smoking is a release for me. Stress relief,” she says. “It can be hard to join in as an international student. You’re suddenly in a foreign country, surrounded by different people, it’s very overwhelming.”
Started young
She isn’t the only one who feels that way. “If you want to join a group, it’s often easy to just light up a cigarette,” says a third-year student who wishes to remain anonymous. She started young too. “I grew up in Turkey, cigarettes are cheap and you can buy them everywhere. So it’s really easy. I was fourteen and all my friends were doing it. It’s a social thing.”
Many students say the same, all of whom wish to remain anonymous, out of shame, because it’s awkward, or because their parents don’t know they smoke: they started when they were young and always because of friends, or parties, or “to feel like they belong”. “I was curious, people in my group of friends smoked occasionally, and then that turned into regularly,” says a 23-year-old Master’s student. A group of 18- and 19-year-old first years agrees. “We started smoking when we went out. You know, dancing, drinking. A cigarette is just the next step. The combination with alcohol is a nice feeling,” they say, as they pass around a pack of cigarettes.
Only a few metres behind them – on university property – stands a prominent sign intended to encourage a smoke-free generation. But that message seems to fall on deaf ears. “Smoking feels great and quitting is really hard” seems to be the common thread in all the stories. “Do you know what would be really hard if you wanted to quit?! The pressure from your environment. You want to feel like you belong, especially if you’re new somewhere.”
Environmental pressure
Recognisable and understandable, says Maastricht professor Gera Nagelhout, specialised among other things, in quitting smoking. “If everyone around you smokes, it’s very hard not to do it too. Good support is crucial if you want to quit, it helps.”
It’s precisely that help that is on offer again this Stoptober, the national initiative to help people to quit cigarettes – both real and electronic – that started ten years ago. By choosing such a massive and communal moment to quit, and supporting each other via social media, for example, the chance of succeeding is high. In the last decade, over half a million people have taken part.
How many of them were students is unknown, and whether there are a lot of takers among the Maastricht cohort remains to be seen, if the stories are any indication. “October is a very busy month with papers and exams,” admits more than one of them. “That’s precisely when we could use a cigarette to relax.”
Not an addiction
The same applies to a large portion of the population, thinks Nagelhout. “Essentially, everybody needs to resonate with the Stoptober campaign. It’s not just a campaign for the elderly or people with a serious tobacco habit, but it does work for people who were already considering quitting. And that’s often not yet the case for students.”
In fact, many see the need for a cigarette as a temporary thing, not as a structural habit. That’s really not that strange, explains Nagelhout. “Young people’s brains are still developing and they are completely unaware that they’re addicted. Only when something changes in their circumstances that leads them to want to quit, such as expecting a baby or finding a new group of friends, do they realise that it isn’t as simple as that.”
The growing popularity of electronic cigarettes – vapes – won’t make that any easier either. Nagelhout: “The increasing use of vapes among children and young people is concerning. While they are less harmful than tobacco, they are still harmful and addictive.”
Measures
Most of the students questioned by Observant do indeed smoke an e-cigarette, mostly for convenience, and for the price. “I pay €8 for a vape that I throw away when it’s finished, and it lasts a week,” says one student. “It’s great that I can just use it indoors, over at friends’, and if you’re somewhere that doesn’t allow vaping indoors, you just go outside. I’m from Canada, where it is socially unacceptable to smoke nowadays. I didn’t even start until I came to Europe. People would shame me for it at home.”
That’s unlikely to change anytime soon in the Netherlands, but Nagelhout believes stronger measures are required if the desire of the government to have a smoke-free generation by 2040 is to be realised. “For example, an even higher tax, fewer points of sale and longer support for people who are trying to quit. It can easily take a year to really quit smoking. And change the focus. If young people are smoking because of stress, maybe you should also look at mental health and how that can be improved. There is a job there for educational institutions as well.”