How Smoking and Vaping Rewrites Your Epigenetic Code

The purpose of this site is to explain how smoking and vaping change gene activity through epigenetic mechanisms, show how these changes are linked to health problems like cancer, lung disease, and addiction, and help students make informed choices about nicotine. The site also offers practical ways to avoid or reduce these risks and proposes a campus policy to reduce and relocate smoking areas on Purdue’s main campus to better protect student and faculty health.

Environmental Factor & Epigenome

Steps to Improve Your Own Health Outcomes

Policy Proposal

Sources and Citations

Epigenetics Explained

Epigenetics refers to reversible and sometimes heritable changes in gene activity that occur without altering the DNA sequence itself. These changes happen through processes such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and regulation by non-coding RNAs, all of which influence whether genes are switched on or off. In simple terms, your cells use chemical tags that act like tiny switches to control how active certain genes are. A helpful analogy is a music mixing board, where the DNA is the song and epigenetic marks are the sliders and knobs that turn some tracks up, others down, or mute them without changing the original recording. Everyday exposures such as cigarette smoke, vaping chemicals, or pollution can disturb these switches, which may contribute to genomic instability and a higher risk of disease.

This image shows DNA methylation, a process that blocks genes from being transcribed and expressed.

Environmental Factor & Epigenome

This topic is highly relevant to students because many lifestyle factors common in college life, such as stress, sleep, diet, exercise, and nicotine use, can leave lasting epigenetic marks. Research shows that smoking and vaping can cause global DNA hypomethylation, which means there are fewer methyl groups attached to the DNA than normal. These methyl groups usually help keep gene activity stable by inhibiting the transcription of certain genes. Having too few methyl groups causes the unwanted expression of genes and leaves the genome unstable, making it more prone to harmful changes.

In addition, chemicals in cigarette smoke and vape aerosol can change how tightly DNA is wrapped around histone proteins and can alter the levels of certain non‑coding RNAs, further disrupting normal patterns of gene regulation in lung cells, blood cells, and immune cells. This combination of DNA hypomethylation, altered histones, and disturbed non‑coding RNAs creates persistent epigenetic “scars” that are associated with long‑term health consequences, including increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung problems. Understanding that some of these changes may remain even after quitting empowers students to make informed choices and recognize how everyday behaviors influence their gene expression and future well‑being.

Steps to Improve Your Own Health Outcomes

Make a Plan to Quit or Never Start

Students who smoke or vape should set a quit date and use youth-focused programs (such as Smokefree Teen) or quit lines for support, while non‑users should commit to staying nicotine‑free.

Quitting reduces exposure to thousands of toxic chemicals and lowers nicotine levels in the blood, which allows airways to calm, inflammation to decrease, and heart and blood vessels to function more normally within weeks to months.

Protect Your Lungs from Second-Hand Smoke

Avoid secondhand vape aerosol and cigarette smoke by asking friends not to use these products around you and choosing smoke‑free spaces.

Reducing inhaled toxins lets the tiny air sacs and cilia in the lungs repair, improving airflow and gas exchange, which leads to better oxygen delivery and less chronic cough and breathlessness.

Support Your Body’s Recovery

Good sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise help the body handle withdrawal and stress, making it easier to stay away from nicotine.

These healthy habits strengthen the immune system and cardiovascular function, and they help normalize metabolism and lipids, which are often disrupted by smoking, reducing long‑term risks for heart disease and respiratory illness.

Commit Long Term to Quitting

Staying nicotine‑free for years, not just days, gives the body time to reverse many of the molecular changes triggered by smoking and vaping.

Research shows that after quitting, many smoking‑related DNA methylation changes in blood cells shift back toward non‑smoker levels within five years, meaning gene regulation becomes more normal, lowering future risk of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Policy Proposal

Reducing and Relocating Designated Smoking Areas on Purdue’s West Lafayette Campus

Currently Designated Smoking Areas are Marked with a Green Smoking Icon

Executive Summary

Purdue’s West Lafayette campus currently allows smoking and vaping only in designated areas, yet many of these zones are located near major buildings, residence halls, and high‑traffic pedestrian routes. This proximity exposes non‑smokers to secondhand smoke and aerosol, undermining student health and comfort and normalizing nicotine use in spaces meant for learning and community. Evidence from U.S. colleges shows that strengthened smoke‑free policies reduce secondhand smoke exposure and support shifts in campus norms around tobacco use. This proposal recommends reducing the number of designated smoking areas and moving remaining sites to low‑traffic, periphery locations to better protect students from involuntary exposure and support healthier campus culture.

Background

Purdue maintains a smoke‑free campus policy with a limited number of designated smoking locations indicated on campus maps, many of which are close to academic buildings and central walkways. Students who do not smoke or vape may still have to pass through smoke plumes or vape clouds on their way to classes, dining halls, or residence halls, which is especially concerning for individuals with asthma, cardiovascular risk, or other health conditions. Secondhand smoke exposure is known to worsen respiratory and cardiovascular health, and college campuses with stronger smoke‑free or tobacco‑free policies report lower reported exposure among students and staff. Because young adults are still forming long‑term habits, reducing visible and physical exposure to smoking and vaping helps prevent initiation and supports current users who want to quit.

Policy Options

Maintain current designated smoking area locations and total number, with improved signage and enforcement.
Reduce the total number of designated smoking areas while keeping them roughly in their current central locations.
Relocate all designated smoking areas to periphery campus locations at least a set distance (for example, 200–300 feet) from building entrances, residence halls, bus stops, and main pedestrian corridors, while keeping the current total number.
Combine reduction and relocation: significantly decrease the number of designated areas and site remaining ones only at low‑traffic, peripheral locations, with clear wayfinding and access to cessation resources.
Transition to a fully tobacco‑free and smoke‑free campus, eliminating all designated smoking areas over a phased timeline, supported by robust cessation programs and communication campaigns.

Our Recommendation

The recommended policy is to both reduce and relocate designated smoking areas on the West Lafayette campus. Specifically, Purdue should:

Decrease the total number of designated smoking areas so they are limited to a small set of clearly marked sites.
Require that all remaining locations be placed away from major academic buildings, residence halls, bus stops, and primary pedestrian paths, ideally near the campus periphery.

This combined approach balances student health and practical considerations by minimizing involuntary exposure without immediately moving to a total campus‑wide ban. Evidence from universities that adopt stronger smoke‑free or tobacco‑free policies shows improvements in campus air quality, lower reported secondhand smoke exposure, and more supportive attitudes toward quitting among students. By reducing the visibility and convenience of smoking locations while still providing clearly defined sites, Purdue can discourage casual use, protect non‑smokers, and reduce conflicts around informal smoking near building entrances.

Expected Impact

In the short term, moving and reducing designated smoking areas will lower secondhand smoke and vape aerosol exposure for students, faculty, staff, and visitors who use main walkways and building entrances, improving respiratory comfort and campus air quality. Students with asthma or other respiratory conditions are likely to experience fewer triggers on their way to class, and fewer people will need to walk through smoke to access academic and residential buildings. Over the longer term, research on college tobacco policies suggests that stronger restrictions can shift social norms, reduce perceived acceptability of smoking, and support reductions in tobacco use on campus. For Purdue students, this means lower risk of nicotine dependence, fewer epigenetic and cardiovascular effects associated with smoking and vaping over time, and a campus environment more consistent with the university’s broader wellness and academic success goals.

Sources and Citations

Chemistry LibreTexts. (n.d.). 2.4: Epigenetic mechanisms. In Toxicology MSDT. Retrieved November 27, 2025, from https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Environmental_Chemistry/Toxicology_MSDT/02:_Biochemistry_and_Molecular_Genetics/2.04:_New_Pagechem.libretexts

Niederbacher, N., García‑Martínez, D., Barrera, C., Gil, F., Lozano, D., Porras, M. J., Castañeda, C., Mogollón, I., Sierra, P., Rodríguez, A., Hernández, S., Torres, C., Rodríguez, C. A., Castillo, R., González, L. B., & Acosta, A. (2021). Electronic cigarettes: Genetic and epigenetic impact. International Journal of Epigenetics, 1(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3892/ije.2021.2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Helpful tips for protecting youth from the harms of vaping. Smoking and Tobacco Use. Retrieved November 27, 2025, from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tobacco-features/back-to-school.html

Gallucci, G., Tartarone, A., Lerose, R., Lalinga, A. V., & Capobianco, A. M. (2020). Cardiovascular risk of smoking and benefits of smoking cessation. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 12(7), 3866–3876. https://doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2020.02.47

Purdue University. (2017). Designated smoking locations. Smoke-free Purdue. https://www.purdue.edu/smokefree/map-embed.php

Chaaya, M., Farran, D., Saab, D., Al-Hindi, M., Romani, M., Khairallah, M., & Nakkash, R. (2021). Influence of a university tobacco-free policy on the attitudes, perceptions of compliance, and policy benefit among the university students: A pre-post investigation. International Journal of Public Health, 66, 614602. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2021.614602 purdue

Wang, T. W., Tynan, M. A., Hallett, C., Walpert, L., Hopkins, M., Konter, D., & King, B. A. (2018). Smoke-free and tobacco-free policies in colleges and universities ― United States and territories, 2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(24), 686–689. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6724a4

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