May 31 is the 20th World No Tobacco Day initiated by WHO. The theme for this year is “Smoke Free Environment”. Zhuhai Municipal Administration of Health, Zhuhai Tobacco Control Association, Zhuhai University District Executive Committee and Zhuhai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention held a signing campaign at BNU-HKBU United International College in the morning to launch a series of “World No Tobacco Day 2007” activities in Zhuhai. Hundreds of students from 10 higher education institutes in Zhuhai signed on the banner to show their support in fighting tobacco.
Mr. Chen Qi, Deputy Director of the Zhuhai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention was the MC of the signing ceremony. Officials and Guests from Zhuhai Municipal Administration of Health, University District Executive Committee, and Zhuhai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention attended the ceremony, and officials of the Administration of Health and University District Executive Committee delivered important speeches on the ceremony. They emphasized that tobacco control promotion should be a long-term and widespread campaign dedicating to create a healthy, clean, and smoke-free social environment by helping smokers to realize the harm of smoking and encourage non-smokers to take part in fighting tobacco. The World No Tobacco Day is a chance to push the anti-tobacco campaign to a climax.
UIC has been making a good effort in creating a smoke-free campus. Being selected as the starting station of the serial activities was a recognition to the achievement of UIC in tobacco fighting. UIC Executive Vice President Kwok Siu Tong shared the experience and problems UIC encountered in building a smoke-free campus on the ceremony, hoping that UIC would be an experimental field for smoke-free campus construction. A UIC student representative also shared her experience in fighting tobacco with other students from the sister universities and colleges.
It was also the opening day of the Tobacco and Health Touring Exhibition. 20 billboards stood up around the exhibition area. The content included the significance of tobacco control, health workers and tobacco control, new problems in quitting smoking, the harm of tobacco, the other side of the fair cigarette, the psychology of smoking among youth and juvenile. The exhibition attracted many teachers and students with its rich contents and scientific introduction. The exhibition will be on UIC for one week and then tours around 10 higher education institutes in Zhuhai.
“World No Tobacco Day 2007” promotion activities that organized by related departments in Zhuhai will focus on the 10 higher education institutes, trying to build the nation’s first smoke-free university district. The activities include: “Smoking and Health” lectures, Students Signing Campaign, Tobacco and Health Touring Exhibition, student smoking survey, “Uphold Healthy Life Style, Keep away from Tobacco” Speech Contest. These activities will be launched in succession later.
Emily Wu / Christy Zhao
Development & Public Relations Office
