Attitudes of CMU Humanities English Major Students

Towards “No Smoking Campaign”

Smoking is the world’s major cause of 5 million deaths and the

number seems increasing. Thai government realizes that smoking is a

horrible problem so they conducted a project called “No Smoking

Campaign”. The purpose is to decrease the number of smokers for the

benefits of Thai’s health. However, the effects or benefits of this campaign

are still a controversial topic. Therefore, a survey was conducted in August

2006 to find out whether CMU Humanities English Major students agree

or disagree with “No Smoking Campaign”. This report is based on the

conclusions drawn from the questionnaires completed by twenty CMU

Humanities English Major students, of whom eleven were males and nine

were females, aged between 20 and 21. The respondents answered the

questions on what they thought about “No Smoking Campaign”, the

benefits, the attitudes, and the possible factors that make it unsuccessful.

From the survey, it was found that CMU Humanities English

Major students agree with “No Smoking Campaign” that it would help

decrease the number of smokers but the government is not serious enough.

Nearly all CMU Humanities English Major students (95%) agreed with

this campaign, while only 5% disagreed with this campaign. The main

reason is they thought this campaign could reduce the number of smokers.

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Referring to the rank of the benefits of “No Smoking Campaign”,

the respondents thought the first ranked benefit was reducing the number

of smokers (45%). The second ranked benefit was it would make the

smokers have better health (20%). The respondents also showed that it

would stimulate smokers to realize the benefits of stop smoking (15%).

Moreover, the survey suggested that most of non-smokers felt a bit uneasy

towards the smokers. This demonstrates that most CMU Humanities

English Major students concern about the benefits of “No Smoking

Campaign” in many ways. Consequently, they believe this campaign will

make smokers have better health and protect the second hand smoke.

On the questions about the attitudes towards “No Smoking

Campaign”, 70% of the respondents said that this campaign was effective.

Moreover, most respondents indicated that increasing higher taxes seemed

to be the most effective method to reduce the number of smokers. In

contrast, the rest (30%) claimed it was not effective because the

government or related organizations did not continuously support this

campaign and the rules were not strict enough. This shows that while most

people think that “No Smoking Campaign” would be effective, there are

still some people disagree with this campaign because they believe that

this campaign is ineffective.

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On the subject of the factors which could make “No Smoking

Campaign” unsuccessful, half of respondents thought smokers and people

around them did not pay attention to this campaign. Two out of five of the

respondents (40%) said people might not cooperate to the campaign.

While only 5% stated that the public stores did not follow the regulations.

This indicates that the most important factor which makes this campaign

unsuccessful is not only depend on the government responsibility but it

should be cooperated by all Thai people.

The survey suggests that most CMU Humanities English Major

students think that “No Smoking Campaign” is effective in reducing the

number of smokers. And they agree to continue the campaign. However,

for improving “No Smoking Campaign” to reach its goal, all of Thai

people should pay attention and cooperate to the government because

smoking is a significant problem which needs the cooperation from all

people in the society to deal with it. Moreover, the survey suggests that the

government should pass a law to fully control smoking and seriously

support the campaign. Thai’s health would be better if Thai people help

each other.