Objective To understand the current smoking situation and attitude of tobacco control among college students in a normal college in Guangzhou

and to provide a basis for the development of tobacco control education for normal college students. Methods A random cluster sampling was used to select 742 students from a normal college in Guangzhou and a questionnaire survey was conducted. Results Sixty-nine of the respondents were smokers

with a smoking rate of 9.30%

and 56 were current smokers

with a current smoking rate of 7.56%. The differences in smoking rate and current smoking rate among students with different gender

major

place of origin

location of high school

and average monthly living expenses were statistically significant（all P<0.05）. The differences in smoking rates and current smoking rates among respondents with different parental smoking status were statistically significant（all P<0.05）

with the highest smoking rates（47.62%） and current smoking rates（33.33%） among respondents whose parents both smoked. 75.47% of respondents believed that teachers’ smoking had an impact on students

and 59.84% of respondents disagreed with teachers’ smoking. There was a statistically significant difference（P<0.05） in the attitude toward teachers’ smoking by smoking status. The proportion of respondents who agreed with "creating a smoke-free campus"

"banning smoking on campus"

"printing warnings on cigarette boxes" and "banning smoking in public places" was significantly higher than those who disagreed and did not care. The differences in the attitudes toward the above tobacco control measures among survey respondents with different smoking status were statistically significant（all P<0.05）

with the proportion of non-smokers agreeing with the above tobacco control measures significantly higher than that of smokers. Only 56.06% of the respondents were satisfied with the tobacco control situation on campus

47.71% of the respondents thought that fines were the most effective method of tobacco control

79.92% of the respondents would discourage others from smoking

61.46% of the respondents would promote tobacco control knowledge

78.71% of the respondents would not accept cigarettes from others

and 65.77% of the respondents wanted to learn about tobacco control. In terms of the form of tobacco control publicity

the most popular form was campus publicity activities（35.18%）

followed by online media publicity（32.08%）. Conclusion The phenomenon of smoking exists among college students in this school

among whom smoking is more serious in college students majoring in physical education

and targeted tobacco control education for college students in normal colleges should be strengthened.