San Diego volunteers gathered in front of the Mesa College cafeteria for the Health Fair on April 15 run by Mesa’s Health Services to inform students of healthier life style choices.

Nurses at Mesa’s Health Center were offering free H1N1 vaccination shots. Several vendors participated in the fair as well, including the San Diego Blood Bank, the Organization of Communities Against Substance Abuse and the San Diego Roots Food Project.

Evelyn Hogan, a representative for the Organization of Communities Against Substance Abuse, has visited Mesa for several years and even helped passed Mesa’s “Smoke-free Campus” policy. She discussed the harsh effects of hookah smoking, which has recently become popular among college students.

“Being that it is close to Earth Day, I wanted to impart education of the effects tobacco has on our health, specifically hookah since it is targeted at college students,” Hogan said. “Smoking one bowl of hookah is equal to the amount of tobacco you would get smoking 90 cigarettes.”

According to the Organization of Communities Against Substance Abuse, about three years ago, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis at a college campus that was traced back to hookah.

“Because hookah is water based, it is a cool, wet smoke that allows the lungs to deeply absorb the smoke,” Hogan said. “The FDA does not regulate it, so we don’t know what’s exactly in it, and you’re not just smoking tobacco, you’re also getting the coal, carbon, and gases from the aluminum foil.”

Along with the information on the effects of smoking, Hogan also passed out peppermint chap stick and chewing gum to students who were quitting smoking, as peppermint helps to curb the craving for tobacco.

Mel Lions, a representative for the San Diego Roots Food Project, was also there to teach students about the program.

“Roots is a non-profit organization encouraging people support local farmers by eating produce that is grown by them,” Lions said. “We are also encouraging the younger generation to grow their own produce through offering classes at our Farm School in San Diego, and currently have an Urban Agriculture class offered at San Diego City College.”

Among the various vendors that participated in the health fair, there were also dream interpretation and meditation booths, food vendors that served gyros and crepes, and a rock-climbing wall.

Brian Farmer, 21, passed by to get lunch and was intrigued about what was going on.

“I saw the rock-climbing wall and the psychic reading, and though it would be fun,” Farmer said. “I also got a crepe.”

Jennie Campos, 20, was another student whose interest was sparked upon seeing the rock-climbing wall.

“I walked by and saw the wall and decided to climb it since it was free,” Campos said. “I climbed it twice, once up the easier side and the other up the harder side. It was exciting because I was pretty high up and got to see everything on campus.”

David Harrington, a community member, interpreted students’ dreams and gave spiritual readings.

“We are Christian based and are looking for the meaning of a person’s dream,” Harrington said. ” People don’t understand their dreams, so we practice listening to God to bring meaning to the dream and encourage them to believe in the positives. Today we had someone cry because they were so touched.”

Naomi Caccam, 18, was initially attracted to the fair upon seeing the rock-climbing wall, but invested the majority of her time gathering information at the spiritual reading and meditation booths.

“As a Kinesiology major, I am already familiar with some types of existing alternative medicines, but I wanted to gain more knowledge about the spiritual aspect,” Caccam said.

The San Diego Blood Bank also attended and made blood donation appointments for the blood drive that will be held at Mesa on May 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.