No butts – the date is set

Students are being given the message to stub out as Unitec campus prepares to go smokefree next year.

After consultation with staff, students and other groups on the large Mt Albert campus, the tertiary institute is set to go smokefree for 2013.

The policy will come into effect on May 31, World Smokefree Day, and will apply to all three campuses.

The ban will also cover all car parks, and vehicles on Unitec grounds. The move will bring the institute in line with its peers. Auckland University went smokefree in 2010 and AUT followed suit in 2011.

Unitec chief executive Rick Ede says the school is committed to providing a healthy working and learning environment.

‘‘Smoking is a major cause of sickness and death, and we hope our decision to go smokefree might motivate our Unitec community to consider a healthier lifestyle, free of smoking.’’

The institute is providing a range of support options for people wanting to quit the habit.

These include quit workshops, access to nicotine replacement therapy and promotion of the 24-hour Quitline service.

The schools’s health, safety and environment team will also train additional staff and students to support its ‘‘quit smoking’’ and nicotine replacement therapy education programme, which will start early next year.