DPH-QU holds virtual meet to promote tobacco-free campus
THE Department of Public Health (DPH) at the College of Health Sciences (CHS-QU) hosted a virtual presentation titled Towards a Tobacco-Free Campus What Can We Learn from Regional Experience (the case of AUB) ’, which was part of the Health Promoting Universities QU Healthy’ virtual initiative that was launched in November 2020.
The virtual presentation featured a keynote webinar by Dr Rima Nakkash, associate professor at Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at American University of Beirut.
Dr Manar Elhassan, head of the Department of Public Health, welcomed the speakers, the audience and expressed her enthusiasm in learning from a known expert in the region.
Dr Rima highlighted the importance of a communitybased approach by cross collaborating across the university to build a high-level task force to review the evidence, develop a tobacco-free campus policy and plan for all aspects of implementation, enforcement and evaluation.
The implementation of a tobacco-free campus aims to build a safe and healthy environment that protects people from involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke by reducing people’s triggers to smoke and supports those who wish to quit smoking. It also aims to prevent the creation of new youth smoker.
Dr Manar said, “Today’s talk is relevant and timely as an important initiative of having a tobacco-free campus at Qatar University in line with thousands of universities around the world that promote health and wellbeing by prohibiting the use of tobacco products on campus.”
The event was concluded with an interactive session in which the guest speaker addressed the audience and students’ questions.