Cost Saving Aspect of Smoke-Free Transition

The cost of smoking is not a simple number; many factors and variables need to be considered. Yet, reducing the prevalence of smoking behavior oncampus can save money, not only for the university but also for individuals and society as a whole. Here's a pure economic standpoint in support of a smoke-free OWU from the practical perspective.

Cleaning and maintenance costs - according to OWU housekeeping, they spend approximately an hour a day cleaning cigarette butts all over campus (library area, residential and academic side). That is, approximately $15 per hour of labor a day. That is, 6 days a week. That is, 36 weeks a year. You do the rest of math. Plus, the cost of the foregone labor where that hour a day could be spent working on other areas of campus (for instance, working on enforcing the policy at its beginning stage after which it should become self-enforcing)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts a $3,391 price tag on each smoker: $1,760 in lost productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures. In addition, estimated costs associated with secondhand smoke's effects on nonsmokers can add up to $490 per smoker per year.

The American Cancer Society reports that employees who smoke have an average insured payment for health care of $1,145, while nonsmoking employees average $762.

OWU serves as a microcosm of the world, therefore these numbers are applicable not only to the employees of the University, but students as well.

OWU is primarily self-insured for the employee healthcare, i.e. most of healthcare costs of employees and dependents are covered by Ohio Wesleyan. Taking all these factors into an account would give us a pretty accurate approximation of cost reductions associated with going smoke-free.

As for changing admission rates, the research done by University of Wisconsin-Madison has concluded that teenagers that are able to predict correctly that higher college costs make future college enrollment less likely, thus facing different expected costs may choose different levels of risky behavior, i.e. quit smoking before enrolling into a university.

And the final thoughts on future admission rates: it is really up to an individual to decide whether a habit dictates the choice of institution or the choice of institution dictates a habit. The desire to want to come to OWU once it becomes smoke-free may be that final push to help the teenage smoker quit.