2023-04-27 17:10:02
Smoking harms both smokers and non-smokers, so one of the most important ways to protect the public from the consequences of tobacco smoke exposure is by establishing 100 percent smoke-free spaces. For this reason, the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM, as of May 31, will enforce the General Law for Tobacco Control (LGCT) and its Regulations that prohibit the consumption of tobacco and new tobacco products (cigarettes electronics, vapers, and heated tobacco products) on your premises.
With the purpose of raising awareness and informing the student, academic, and administrative community of this new health measure, Dr. Guadalupe Ponciano Rodríguez, Coordinator of the Faculty’s Research and Prevention Program for Smoking, and the work team of the Institute for Health Care and Prevention of Addictions in Mexico City (IAPA), installed a tent and the IAPA Bus on the red esplanade to publicize the different strategies that are being used for the benefit of all, as well as the damages of tobacco in particular and addictions in general.
“The LGCT Regulation was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on January 15 of this year and specifies that schools must be totally free of cigarette smoke and new products that contain tobacco and nicotine,” said the doctor. Ponciano Rodríguez when explaining that it will not be possible to smoke inside the Faculty or in the red esplanade, the Paseo de las Facultades, the part that adjoins the Faculty of Chemistry and the entrance to the parking lots, because despite being open spaces free have a lot of passers-by.
He also indicated that one of the initiatives of the campaign is the program “The air keepers”, which invites students, teachers and workers to be guardians of the air and encourage anyone to quit smoking and report if someone is violating the agreements established by the LGCT; In addition, two report boxes will be installed: one in the Coordination of Community Services and another on the sixth floor of the “B” building, in the Department of Public Health, to find out the points to improve.
Photographs: Brisceida López
Also, the Clinic against Tobacco offers anyone who wants to quit smoking a totally free online program that lasts 12 weeks aimed at providing high-quality professional help to promote and facilitate smoking cessation, preventing through timely diagnosis the damage to the health associated with smoking.
Likewise, there is the optional subject “Clinical Management of the Smoking Patient”, which students of the Surgeon Degree can take from the third year to learn how to help patients to quit smoking; On the other hand, Dr. Ponciano Rodríguez reported that they are preparing a survey to find out the prevalence of students who start smoking during their degree due to various factors, such as stress.
“I think this is something that had to happen in the Faculty of Medicine, where we are training doctors who will treat smokers in the future, we want them to be health professionals with healthy, smoke-free lifestyles. of cigarettes and nicotine”, pointed out the academic.
Karen Hernandez
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