HSOC 407 Urban Environments: Prevention of Tobacco Smoking in Adolescents
Cross-listed as ENVS 407
Offered:Spring 2010
Kulik TR 10:30-12
Capstone Course
ABCS Course
course originates in Earth and Environmental Sciences
Smoking kills more people in the United States each year than car accidents, alcohol, AIDS, murders, illegal drugs and suicides COMBINED. Approximately 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking before age 18. Every day, more than 4,000 kids under the age of 18 try their first cigarette; more than 1,140 become daily smokers. While tobacco use among high school students declined from 2000 to 2007, according to the CDC in 2007, tobacco use among middle school students remained steady at 6 percent with high school students at 19% for females and 21% for males.
In ENVS 407, students take a multidisciplinary approach to examining the health effects of tobacco, within an environmental and public health context. Lectures and readings cover the history of tobacco, social trends, usage among adolescents and college students, pharmacology of nicotine and the resulting medical disorders, marketing, the legal battles and the tobacco settlement. Knowledge gained through class discussions and readings will be applied during fieldwork and practical experience: As an Academically Based Community Service Course, Penn students collaborate with school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage eighth and ninth graders in exercises that demonstrate the consequences of tobacco addiction, and which will educate students in Drew, Huey, West Philly High, and Sayre schools about the hazards of smoking before they begin. Additionally, students will conduct field research to assess attitudes and measure accessibility to tobacco products in the West Philadelphia area.
