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World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2023

World No Tobacco Day (WNTD)

We need food, not tobacco

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Deir el Kalaa from 9h AM to 12hPM

AUB-TFI

 

Under the theme “Enjoy nature, don’t smoke” and on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2023, calling to “grow food and not tobacco” on Wednesday 31st May, the Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking Knowledge Hub (WTS-KH) at American University of Beirut (AUB), and Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) observed this annual event at Deir el Kalaa Country Club, followed by a hike in the beautiful Beit Meri hills.

“First, let’s quit bad habits like smoking and vaping and learn how to benefit from the amazing and beauty of nature in Lebanon. Then, let’s stop polluting nature and not throw cigarette butts that contaminate the environment and contribute further to the destructive pollution and also to avoid smoking nargileh amongst the beautiful pinewood and leave behind lit charcoal which leads to damaging forest fires that threaten seriously the 22 % of the green spaces left in our country”; this was the main message of  H.E. Minister of Environment Dr Nasser Yassine who participated in the event and supported it. The event was attended by many officials, among them MP Elie Hankach, Mrs Nohal Homsi (WHO), ex-MP Ghassan Moukheiber…, senior directors from Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, several directors of schools and their pupils as well as university students and hikers. In his welcoming note, Dr Ghazi Zaatari, AUB Professor, Chair of WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation and Director of WHO-FCTC Knowledge Hub on Waterpipe, emphasized the dangers to human health by all tobacco products including the novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. He highlighted the alarming increasing and uncontrolled trend in waterpipe use in Lebanon, especially amongst youth. He called on government officials to reinforce the implementation of Law 174 to protect the health and well-being of the Lebanese citizens, particularly the youngsters. 

Addressing the numerous youngsters in the audience, Dr Hala Kahi Mouawad, Family Medicine physician and Tobacco Treatment Specialist as well as TFI board member focused in her presentation on the false and misleading information by the tobacco industry that promotes e-cigarettes as being less harmful than conventional cigarettes in order to gain more consumers and bring them to be nicotine addicts. “That’s why, this year, TFI decided to make the youngsters discover more the beauty of the Lebanese nature as an alternative to smoking in order to relax and disconnect from the daily stress. Thus, the idea of the hike in nature”, stressed journalist Elsa Yazbek Charabati, Master of Ceremony and Vice President of TFI.

“Hiking in nature is not only a nice activity, it’s a therapy. It makes us clean our head from the negative vibes surrounding us. In the nature, you forget the cigarette, because you learn the importance of breathing fresh air”, said Joyce Azzam, the first Lebanese woman to complete “The Seven Summits Challenge”.

The program of this celebrated event included a video presentation by Luciano Ruggia, director of the Swiss Association for Tobacco Control, entitled « The 17 Sustainable Development Goals : How tobacco is disrupting them? ». Ms Ghazaleh Badine made a very touching testimonial; she lost her father because of lung cancer due to tobacco growing and consumption and she stressed the necessity to stop planting tobacco and shift to growing alternative edible crops instead, in line of WNTD 2023 moto of : “Grow food, not tobacco”. Finally, Antoine & Minerva Kairouz Awards were distributed to deserving individuals and organizations who have been strong advocates of tobacco control in Lebanon over the years. After the ceremony, the audience joined on a hike in the nearby neighbourhood to enjoy the beautiful wilderness and mountainous sceneries of Beit Meri.

The Materials, agenda, presentation, and pictures are on the below google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EG5bWFBG3GKJEBnVa44QWBFkeqRHGdws?usp=sharing

 

The WTS-KH event all over the news:

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WNTD 2023 WTS KH

The Fourth International Conference on Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking Research

4th WTS - syllabus 20220919.pdf

The Fourth International Congress on Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking_April_GZRA.pdf

Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death throughout much of the world. Waterpipe (WP) tobacco use - formerly a traditional habit among men in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) - has also spread across the globe among women and youth. Waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) can be exclusive but often part of poly-tobacco use.

The last two decades have witnessed more research on the use prevalence, determinants of use, contents and emissions, and health effects of WTS. Interventions to prevent and control use have recently been implemented and evaluated, informing our ability to tackle this epidemic.

Policy and regulatory approaches to WTS have been suggested by WHO and FCTC in a number of frameworks (e.g. Conference of Parties decisions, WHO Technical Reports and Advisories) but their implementation remains lagging behind national regulations targeting mostly cigarettes. The regulatory landscape for tobacco control is changing in the US and internationally.

The Fourth International Conference on Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking Research built on the momentum established in the first, second and third conferences to share recent scientific evidence on WTS with intent to inform practice, policy and regulation and enhance public health and population wellbeing.

In addition to keynote presentations by scientists and leaders in tobacco control and/or knowledge translation, the conference was open to abstracts submission on emerging research. The full list of speakers is in appendix 1.

The conference was organized by WHO-FCTC Knowledge Hub on Waterpipe Smoking (KH-WTS) at the American University of Beirut in collaboration with the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and WHO Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The virtual conference was held over 3 days between September 27 and 29, 2022 and was attended fully by 77 participants. The program of the conference can be found in appendix 2.

Objectives

At the end of the conference, participants were able to:

  1. Learn about recent evidence on interventions to prevent/control WTS   
  2. Update evidence based knowledge on practice, policy, and regulation to enhance public health and population wellbeing.
  3. Build capacity in knowledge translation for WTS and enhance linkages and collaborative partnerships globally.
4th International Congress for WTS KH 2023
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