The 'Geumnyeon Wonjeongdae' Appears on School Routes... Three Organizations Unite for No Smoking Campaign

Health Insurance Busan Gyeongnam Headquarters · Green Umbrella Children's Foundation Busan Child Advocacy Center · Busan Smoking Cessation Support Center

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A ‘No Smoking Expedition’ that completely eliminates cigarette smoke on the way to school has appeared.

If there is the ‘Minsik Act’ in school zones, these groups have a powerful campaign to make school routes NO SMOKING zones.

To eliminate smoking on school routes, the National Health Insurance Service Busan-Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters (Director Jang Su-mok), Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation Busan Child Advocacy Center (Director Park Jeong-yeon), and Busan Smoking Cessation Support Center (Director Lee Yoo-hyun) have joined hands to launch a campaign to create a smoke-free environment.

The campaign has been underway since October 16 and plans to designate all school routes as no-smoking areas based on a survey on school routes conducted during the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation Busan Child Advocacy Center’s ‘2019 Green Road Expedition.’

The three organizations have united to protect children’s right to grow up healthily and to live in a safe environment.

Each organization posts content such as the school route smoke-free environment campaign ‘N-Acrostic Poem Campaign’ and ‘Why Smoke? No Smoking in Front of Schools Come on~!!’ on their SNS (Instagram) accounts, and supporters of each organization promote the campaign through their personal SNS accounts.

Anyone can participate, and the method is to choose a no-smoking theme word from the campaign content, create an ‘N-acrostic poem,’ and post it as a comment on the campaign post on SNS (Instagram).

The National Health Insurance Service plans to select 20 outstanding participants and provide a ‘Corona Healing Box’ composed of quarantine supplies as prizes to encourage public awareness and participation.

Since 2015, the Service has been promoting smoking cessation treatment support and smoking prevention projects, focusing on creating a social atmosphere for smoking cessation by linking with community resources.

Director Jang Su-mok said, “Research shows that smokers are 5 to 7 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than non-smokers, and smoking rooms themselves are stigmatized as a main route for the spread of COVID-19.”

Director Jang added, “To prevent COVID-19 infection and protect family health, the Service will continue to make efforts to encourage everyone to quit smoking.”