(Wikimedia Commons)

While more than 1,000 colleges and universities have tobacco-or smoke-free policies, UCLA is the first UC school to adopt such a policy, leading President Mark G. Yudof's call for all 10 UC schools to be smoke-free by 2014.

The ban includes the use of smokeless tobacco and other unregulated nicotine products in indoor and outdoor spaces, the L.A. Times reported.

The ban aims to educate young people about the harmful effects of tobacco.

Support will be available to tobacco users on campus to help them kick the habit, but "the policy doesn't require smokers to quit,"nursing professor Linda Sarna told the L.A. Times. "They need to manage their nicotine symptoms in a similar way to a long plane ride."

Students at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability collected about 10,000 cigarette butts in a two-hour period on Sunday, which were displayed at the Earth Day rally.

In its 2012 report on air quality and pollution, The American Lung Association noted that Los Angeles County was still plagued with unhealthy air. Los Angeles also ranked in the top ten cities with the worst air pollution.

“Cigarette butts, which are non-biodegradable, account for one-third of all the litter in California. Cigarette butts and cigarette smoke are toxic and degrade the quality of our air, water, forests and beaches,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block.

UCLA said Powell Library had poorer air quality than other areas of the campus due to the vast amount of cigarettes smoked in the area. Students collected more than 1,000 butts over a few weeks.

"In order to take care of the Earth, we must take care of ourselves," Block said at the Earth Day Launch.

Reach Editor at Large Brianna Sacks here