Parties are common on and around most college campuses, but how many of those parties are sponsored by the tobacco industry?

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A widespread tobacco industry marketing strategy -- sponsoring social events and giving out free cigarettes at bars, clubs, and college parties -- is reaching students and may be encouraging them to take up smoking, according to a new study.

The study, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found that students at all but one of the 119 U.S. colleges and universities surveyed reported attending a tobacco-industry-sponsored social event on or off campus in 2001.

The study suggested that these events could be a powerful inducement to begin smoking. Students who had not started to smoke by the age of 19 were especially likely to have become smokers if they had been exposed to a tobacco promotion at a bar, nightclub, or college social event.

Although the number of students reached at many schools was relatively small, up to 27 percent of students were reached at some schools. Overall, 8.5 percent of the nearly 11,000 students surveyed had attended a tobacco-industry-sponsored social event where free cigarettes were distributed. Bars and nightclubs were the most common settings, but students also reported attending events on college campuses.

Those who had attended these tobacco promotions were more likely than those who hadn't attended to be current smokers.

In the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, the tobacco industry agreed not to market to teenagers, making young adults -- ages 18 to 24 -- its youngest legal targets.

"By distributing cigarettes and sponsoring these events in bars and on college campuses, the tobacco industry promotes the idea that cigarettes are an essential part of young adults' social lives," said Dr. Nancy Rigotti, lead researcher of the study.

"These findings also give states and communities another good reason to adopt smoking bans in bars and nightclubs," Rigotti said. "Tobacco-free bars and nightclubs are likely to be less attractive as sites for tobacco industry promotions."

Study Abstract