Under the supervision of the Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Professor Dr. Sarmed H. Kathem Alkhateeb, the Human Rights Unit at the University of Baghdad/College of Pharmacy, held an in-person workshop entitled “Health Awareness Against Smoking,” delivered by Lecturer Dr. Hiba Hayder Kathem, a faculty member at the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department.
The workshop aimed to raise public health awareness about the dangers of smoking in its various forms, highlight its health, psychological, social, and economic impacts, and promote a culture of prevention and smoking cessation through scientific awareness and modern approaches that support a smoke-free healthy lifestyle.
The workshop included several topics, including defining smoking, its common types, and reasons for its spread among young people; psychological, social, and media-related effects; presentation of smoking statistics and indicators in Iraq; health damage to different body systems; and its economic and social consequences, especially among adolescents and youth. Also , it addressed modern awareness methods and preventive programs to reduce this phenomenon, the role of educational and health institutions in promoting health awareness and positive behaviors, the importance of family and media in supporting anti-smoking efforts, enforcement of relevant laws and regulations, and encouraging youth initiatives aimed at smoking cessation and building a sustainable healthy society.
The workshop concluded that smoking is one of the most serious health problems with significant health, economic, and social dimensions, emphasizing the importance of awareness and prevention through modern methods of control, and strengthening cooperation between health and educational institutions to reduce this phenomenon.
