Yangcheon-gu Provides Smoking Prevention and Cessation Education to 7,300 Elementary, Middle, and High School Students

Operation of 'Visiting Youth Clean School' for about 7,300 students in 14 elementary, middle, and high schools until November
One-stop support including expert instructors' smoking prevention, healthy lifestyle practices, 1:1 smoking cessation education, and customized behavioral therapy

Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Lee Gi-jae) is operating the ‘Visiting Youth Clean School’ program targeting about 7,300 students from 14 elementary, middle, and high schools until November this year to prevent youth smoking in advance and spread a non-smoking culture.

The ‘Visiting Youth Clean School’ consists of two parts: ‘Youth Smoking Prevention Education’ and ‘Smoking Cessation Class.’ First, the ‘Youth Smoking Prevention Education’ involves professional instructors visiting schools to deliver lectures focusing on spreading awareness of the harmful effects of youth smoking and promoting healthy lifestyle habits.

The main topics include ▲the harms of smoking ▲problems related to youth smoking ▲correct understanding of new types of tobacco ▲methods for practicing healthy living among youth.

Over the past three years, the district has conducted smoking prevention education for about 22,000 students at 54 schools. According to a survey conducted after the education, more than 80% of students responded that it helped prevent smoking, showing high satisfaction.

The ‘Smoking Cessation Class’ provides various programs such as one-on-one smoking cessation counseling, smoking cessation education, and personalized behavioral therapy by professional counselors from the public health center’s smoking cessation clinic for students who smoke at school, helping them quit smoking effectively. In the past three years, 160 youths participated in the smoking cessation class, and 48 of them, accounting for 30%, successfully quit smoking.

Lee Gi-jae, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “As the age at which youths attempt smoking is gradually decreasing, we operate the ‘Visiting Youth Clean School’ to help raise awareness of the dangers of smoking and promote healthy lifestyle habits.” He added, “We will continue to actively operate various programs to protect the health of our youths and spread a non-smoking culture.”

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