We don’t need tobacco,We need food!
Bevrani Zana
Who am I? Who do I want to be?
I'm a 21 year old student from Iran studying at the University of Shizuoka. Back in the days I had friends in high school for whom smoking was their daily habit. Very usual culture in my hometown(unfortunately).
با اندوه بسیار زیاد باید این ڕا بگویم کە در کشورمان ایران جوانان بسیار زیادی از سنین دبیرستان الودە بە دخانیان میشوند.
When I entered this university, I found that the policy was to not allow anyone to smoke inside the campus. I do pay a lot of respect to this rule which restricts smoking and consequently makes the campus cleaner and safer for each student’s health. However, I am getting to know more people by time who smoke and they’re still under 20 which means it’s illegal.
原則としてはタバコを購入する時にコンビニの店員に身分証明を求められるはずだが、僕の周りには未成年の喫煙者が多数います…
I did simple field work by asking young students who smoke in certain areas around the campus(ex:in front of convenience stores). The results were shocking and I believe that the main issue has not been fixed yet.
What local and global problems am I aware of?
Local problems: I'm supposed to live in Kusanagi and spend my 4 years of student life in the University of Shizuoka. The situation of health improvements should concern us much more deeply. We should not make a rule to ban every smoking area in the campus while knowing that under 20 students are going to smoke with their “Senpai” one block away.
Global problems: cigarette/tobacco industry has a massive part in today’s global business. It needs extreme hard work to be able to stop huge companies of tobacco. Nevertheless we can start from our current location and try to export and appeal our experiences to other cities and countries.
What Sustainable Development Goals have I learned about?
Goal 15 "Life on land"
Information
Let's make the earth a safer and nicer place to live.
It's been many years that smoking in public places is a big issue for the environment. How can we solve this problem with the minimum mental/physical costs for the smokers?
Information
We don't need tobacco! We need food!
Tobacco industry is one of the biggest businesses in the world. Many developed countries are working on reducing the amount of smoke and chemical materials that affect the environment. However it seems like it's not easy to reach that goal and there are few important facts you can see in the link below.
Sources
What did I do and learn in my fieldwork?
What was my research question?
Q1: Do you have any friends in university who are under 20 and smoke cigarettes? (6? 5 people”5 male, 1 female” answered YES)
Q2: Being able to smoke inside the campus, would that make you happy?
(6 people said Yes”5 male 1 female”) (2“people said NO! They said they don’t feel good if their friends and teachers see them while smoking
Location①: In front of Wanfu restaurant.
Why is this important to me?
Although I do smoke sometimes, I’m interested in health and protecting the environment.
I know that many under 20 students are smoking with their Senpais. The university removed all smoking areas in the campus but there are still issues that must be solved.
What did I do?
I went to the closest smoking area from school and asking politely if they’re students. Then I start asking questions about their age and their thoughts on school’s strategy(no smoke inside school).
What data did I collect?
Asked 8 Kendai students near to the university while smoking.(6 male, 2 female)
①More than 60% said they actually know students in Kendai who are under 20 but they smoke.
②75% said they wished university had a smoking area inside campus.
What trends did I find in the data?
As I expected, most students are wishing to be allowed to smoke at school. However, the interesting point is that more than half of the students I spoke to said,”We have under 20 smoker friends”. Even if universities allow them, what will guarantee and protect under 20 students?
How does my fieldwork connect to my future?
It was my first time doing field work about something that I’m interested in.
I observed people and deeply thought about the words they gave me. Looks like everyone has a completely different story and as a field worker, I need to set up my way of talking when I’m asking them to answer my questions.
Who is doing related work locally and globally? What are they doing?
Local connection:
Our university accepted a rule(2019) in the prefecture to restrict smoking inside campus due to health improvement. https://www.u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp/news/20190214-3/
Global connection:
What do I think would be a useful project to work towards achieving the SDGs?
Short summary:
SDGs targeted:
Goal 15: Life on land
Goal 3: good health and well-being
Who
University students in Kendai. Including under 20 students
Try to find a more helpful way to guarantee that under 20 students will be safe from smoking.
Also make the environment cleaner without banning every kind of smoking area.
What
Providing a smoking room inside campus like before? How to prevent the abundance of ash and garbage? And more important is not allowing under age students to get into smoking rooms.
When
Kendai has decided to restrict smoking on campus from 2019.
Where
The idea is how to make a safe smoking area which doesn't harm the campus environment and students. However I did my fieldwork at two locations close to campus and interviewed smokers.
How (how many / how much)
Why
Although I smoke, I'm interested in well-being and making life on land better
Materials
SDGs related articles, past field work examples,etc
Dangers / risks
Interviewing people while smoking
Problems
Putting the interviewer’s health into in risk by going to smoking rooms very often and talk to smokers(Risk of breathing smoke)
Problems
Timeline
Restricting smoking areas in Kendai Kusanagi campus (2018)
Removing all smoking areas inside campus(2019)
First fieldwork on smoking issues (2023/06)
Reflection
What I learned this semester: I learned to complete big projects step by step by knowing yourself first, and then observing the people and environment.
What I did well: Facing people to collect data for my field work, team presentation, challenging myself with weekly diaries.
What I could have done better: maybe it was a good idea to interview someone in the school who is in charge of this topic.
The connection to my future: I’d love to study more about SDGs and do actual activity/field work to make life easier, safer and more beautiful in the world. This was my first experience and I'm ready for more challenges!
Advice for other students: Don't be afraid to be yourself. We need to be ourselves and get know to ourselves then we can connect to each other and make that big power to change our school, town, country, world (: