Start of Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team Activities

District appoints 36 residents aged 30-50 as ‘Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team’ on the 26th of last month

‘Smoking cessation evangelists’ who have been coaching over 63,000 smokers since 2019

Complementing enforcement-focused smoking cessation policies, playing a key role in smoking cessation promotion and resolving conflicts among residents over smoking complaints

Seocho-gu (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) will officially operate the ‘Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team’ starting this month to prevent secondhand smoke damage and foster a proper smoking cessation culture.

The ‘Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team’ is a group of ‘smoking cessation evangelists’ who patrol smoking-prone areas to guide smokers on how to quit smoking, linking them to smoking cessation clinics to support their determination to quit, rather than focusing on enforcement actions such as fines.

Since beginning activities in 2019, they have met and coached over 63,000 smokers to date.

On the 26th of last month, the district held the appointment ceremony for the ‘2023 Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team’ and appointed 36 members. These members are residents in their 30s to 50s familiar with local conditions, focusing on minimizing conflicts among residents caused by smoking complaints, complementing blind spots in smoking enforcement, and guiding smokers to plan for cessation.

The ‘Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team’ will patrol neighborhoods until November this year, engaging in various activities such as ▲promoting smoke-free zones in schools, daycare centers, and kindergartens ▲educating smokers in hard-to-enforce backstreets and private properties ▲promoting smoking cessation programs and guiding participation in smoking cessation clinics.

Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team Campaign Activities

Thanks to these efforts, the district won the Grand Prize in the ‘Smoking Cessation Environment Creation’ category at the ‘Making Seoul a Smoke-Free City’ evaluation hosted by Seoul City in 2022, as well as the Excellence Award in the General Policy category at the ‘Korea Healthy City Awards’ hosted by the Korea Healthy Cities Association.

The district is making various efforts to create a pleasant smoke-free environment. First, within this month, it plans to produce and distribute a ‘Smoking (Smoking Area) Zone Guide Map’ that clearly marks smoke-free zones and smoking facilities.

Additionally, the district will operate a ‘Smoking Cessation Clinic’ on an ongoing basis, providing 1:1 customized tests such as nicotine dependence assessments, expert counseling, and smoking cessation aids to help residents practice quitting smoking.

Jeon Seong-su, Mayor of Seocho-gu, said, “We will continue to promote various smoking cessation projects to protect the health of our residents and strive even harder to create a ‘Healthy Seocho.’”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.