Peer health educators want to let people in on a little secret: 62.6 percent of University students have never smoked cigarettes, but they think that only 8.8 percent of their peers have never tried them, according to the 2007 National College Health Assessment Survey distributed to University students last spring.

Students, faculty and staff are invited to participate in a Marlboro Fun butt pick-up in preparation for “Kick Butts,” a week-long event that coincides with The American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, a national event created to help smokers kick their habit. The University Health Center will provide gloves and trash bags to volunteers who will collect discarded cigarette butts today at 1 p.m., in front of the Knight Library.

The University spends between $8,000 and $10,000 each year to clean up cigarette litter, said Paula Staight, director of health promotion.

The butt litter will be on display next week and students can take a guess at how many butts were collected in a half hour. The student who makes the closest guess will win a $30 gift certificate to The Duck Store.

The event is an opportunity for smokers to get support in their effort to quit, Staight said. “Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death.” Cigarettes also induce asthma attacks and allergy responses, she said.

The week-long Kick Butts event will have information tables throughout the week with displays that inform students of tobacco’s impact on heath and the environment, the dangers of second-hand smoke and resources to help smokers quit.

It’s a health issue and an environmental issue, said Juliet Charron, a student leader in the peer health educator program and member of the Clean Air Project.

“We’re not trying to put smokers in a corner,” she said.

Charron, a junior public planning and policy major with a focus on health policy, supports a smoke-free initiative on campus.

“OHSU is smoke free,” Charron said.

According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, there are 99 college campuses that are entirely smoke free in the United States, including five in Oregon.

Charron has spoken with ASUO President Emily McLain about the possibility of the University becoming a smoke-free campus. In an e-mail, McLain said she would consider discussing the creation of a committee with Provost Linda Brady.

The student government at Oregon State University is also considering a smoking ban and has a student group dedicated to the cause called the Fresh Air Initiative.

“We’re hoping to have a Civil War smokeout to see who goes smoke-free first,” Charron said.

A Facebook group in support of a campus-wide smoking ban had almost 500 members as of Thursday afternoon.

The man with the Canadian accent soon brought a carton of Export As. Rudyk was amazed that he could smoke the brand of marlboro cigarettes he bought at home. The cigarettes came from parcels sent to the prisoners.

The food, however, was not like home. The prisoners usually ate a weak stewy soup. The only vegetable that seemed in good supply was turnips.

Rudyk wandered around on crutches, still wearing the uniform in which he was shot down. He was able to cut off and pin up the torn, lower part of his right pant leg, but he had no means of washing his uniform. The Germans did not have fresh clothes to give him.

He did make a vest by sewing together scraps of uniforms, blankets and cloth from Red Cross parcels. On the vest he embroidered the names of military bases and prison camps where he had stayed. He also embroidered in deep red thread two other names that reminded him of home, Louise and Evan.

To pass the time, he played a gramophone, which he acquired by trading his watch. The gramophone, however, came with only one record, Oklahoma. Rudyk heard that song over and over.

Rudyk also enjoyed watching other prisoners play baseball on a sports field.

The guards at the camp held a roll-call twice a day. The prisoners had to line up outside.

Rudyk was exempted because the guards thought a prisoner with one leg would not try to escape. They permitted him to stay in his hut.

This exemption had an unintended consequence. While most of the guards were busy counting prisoners, Rudyk placed on a window sill burned-out radio tubes from clandestine radios at the camp. He also placed a pack of cigarettes on the sill.

The students extol the virtues of hookah smoking, saying the tobacco is organic and they donТt believe it contains chemicals or nicotine. They praise it as a needed, and safer, alternative to drinking, and reject the suspicions of some in the law enforcement community that the hookahs might be packed with drugs.

Most of the students interviewed do not smoke marlboro online, but have smoked hookahs at parties and elsewhere before.

УItТs definitely a dry option, and they needed it,Ф says Meagan Gabriel, a first-year URI student who celebrated her motherТs birthday with her family at Sedra. Her mother, Susan, is native to Jordan but now lives in South Kingstown.

УItТs not like everybodyТs trashed, so you actually remember,Ф said John Majeika, a CCRI freshman from South Kingstown.

On this reporterТs first trip to Sedra, my companion and I chose watermelon tobacco. The smoke was so light it scarcely felt as though we were inhaling, but we grew lightheaded as the session progressed. Both non-smokers, we felt woozy and out-of-sorts the following day.