Students Undertake Project on Tobacco Use Policies

Dental hygiene students at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) are making a difference when it comes to protecting residents from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Under the leadership of Sandra Wilkie, RDH, MSDH, SLCC’s first year dental hygiene program coordinator, dental hygiene students audited the no-tobacco use signage on three of SLCC’s campuses in order to ensure compliance with the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act (UICAA). The UICAA prohibits tobacco use, smoking, and vaping indoors or within 25 feet of a door, window, or air intake, and requires posted signs.

“Students opted to tally the number of exterior doors and the number of signs banning tobacco use within 25 feet as a reasonable proxy for complex UICAA requirements. They checked 252 exterior doors at the Jordan, South City, and Redwood campuses and found only 14 correct signs,” Wilkie explained. “They also discovered 16 signs that could be improved, as they either failed to mention vaping and other forms of tobacco use or suggested tobacco is completely banned on campus.”

After completing the audit, the students presented their findings at the Utah Society for Public Health Conference on November 3, 2022. Their presentation definitely made an impact as the Salt Lake County Health Department decided to provide stickers with the appropriate information about tobacco use at no charge to the dental hygiene students. The students posted the stickers at three SLCC campuses on January 21, 2023.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. April 2023; 21(4):10.