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| Sunday, Sep 21, 2008
701 educational institutions to be declared
tobacco-free
Cancer Institute’s effort pays off
Chennai: As many as 701 educational institutions in the State
will be declared tobacco-free on Wednesday.
This follows an initiative of the Adyar Cancer Institute, which,
together with agencies, including the Health Department, the
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the World Health Organisation
(WHO), has been working to make educational institutions tobacco-free.
As part of its ‘World No Tobacco Day’ activities,
the Tobacco Cessation Centre of the Institute has also been
training coordinators at institutions in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,
district liaison officers for schools, and NSS coordinators
from colleges over the past few months to establish a tobacco
control taskforce in all schools and colleges.
E. Vidubala, principle investigator, Tobacco Cessation Centre,
said the institutions which were to be declared tobacco-free
had established a taskforce. “We are now scaling up the
effort to cover all the other institutions in the State.”
The institutions — over 600 schools and nearly 100 colleges
across the State — are being recognised for meeting certain
criteria, such as putting up boards with the message that tobacco
products were not to be stored or sold on the premises. They
must also ensure that tobacco products were not sold in any
store or petty shop within 100 metres of their campuses.
Institutions meeting such parameters had sent reports to the
Cancer Institute. Later, a team of coordinators in various districts,
headed by the Deputy Directors of Health Services, verified
whether they were meeting the prescribed criteria and submitted
reports to the Institute. Based on this, the Institute selected
schools and colleges that were fit to be declared tobacco-free.
“There are some institutions that have met certain parameters.
Once they cover all the criteria, they, too, will be declared
tobacco-free,” Ms. Vidubala said.
On Wednesday, nearly 4, 000 students and staff members from
all over Tamil Nadu will attend the function, in where Governor
Surjit Singh Barnala and School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu
will present the awards.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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