Seoul Smoke-Free City Achievement Awards: Grand Prize and Encouragement Award Winners
Seocho-gu, Seoul (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) announced on the 5th that it was selected as an excellent institution in two categories among Seoul’s autonomous districts, receiving the Grand Prize (1st place) in the ‘Creating a Smoke-Free Environment’ category and the Encouragement Award (3rd place) in the ‘Youth Smoking Prevention’ category at the ‘2024 Seoul Smoke-Free City Performance Competition.’
Photo of award ceremony at the '2024 Seoul Smoke-Free City Achievement Conference.' Provided by Seocho-gu.
The competition, held on the 4th at Seoul City Hall, was organized by Seoul City to discover and spread best practices that contributed to creating smoke-free environments, providing smoking cessation support services, and preventing youth smoking among the 25 autonomous districts.
On this day, Seocho-gu presented under the theme ‘Seocho’s No Smoke (No Dam) to Eliminate Smoking Blind Spots.’ The district’s efforts to reduce secondhand smoke damage and protect children’s health by enhancing convenience and accessibility through QR codes received high praise.
In particular, the introduction of the nation’s first ‘Seocho Smoke-Free (Smoking) Zone QR Guide Board,’ which informs outdoor smoke-free and smoking zones, attracted the judges’ attention for reducing smoking in smoke-free zones and compensating for the limitations of enforcement personnel.
The ‘Seocho Smoke-Free (Smoking) Zone QR Guide Board’ allows users to scan the QR code on the guide board with their smartphones to view a web map showing outdoor smoke-free and smoking zones within a 200-meter radius of their location. Reflecting smoking behavior, the boards were installed within 200 meters of smoking facilities at subway station entrances, bus stops, and convenience store entrances. A comparison before and after the installation of 12 QR guide boards near the Seoul Express Bus Terminal, a high-smoking area, showed about a 25% decrease in enforcement cases. As of November, the total number of QR guide board accesses reached 15,011.
Previously, while considering ways to minimize indiscriminate smoking and secondhand smoke, the district noted that about 69% of those caught smoking were digital generation individuals aged 30 or younger. Based on a pilot operation at 98 high-smoking areas in June last year, the district began operating guide boards at 300 locations from September this year. When scanning the QR code, smoke-free zones within a 200-meter radius are marked with blue lines, and smoking zones are indicated with red icons. Additionally, a pop-up window for ‘Smoking Cessation Support Service Information’ and a smoking cessation clinic guide function are provided to encourage quitting smoking.
Moreover, in March, Seocho-gu was highly evaluated for designating the area within 10 meters of the boundaries of 72 children’s parks as smoke-free zones?the first in the nation?contributing to eliminating smoking blind spots and preventing children’s exposure to secondhand smoke. This institutional measure was established in response to residents’ concerns that cigarette smoke from outside the parks was entering and harming children’s health inside the parks.
Currently, the district is conducting both guidance and enforcement through public-private cooperation. The ‘Seocho Smoking Cessation Coaching Team,’ consisting of 36 members including parents, guides smokers around parks and provides information on smoking cessation clinics. Additionally, 28 ‘Playground Guardians’ are deployed throughout the area to ensure the safety of children using the parks.
In a satisfaction survey conducted in September with 1,399 residents, 53.5% of respondents said smoking around children’s parks had ‘decreased,’ and 62.7% were ‘aware’ that the area around the parks was a smoke-free zone. Furthermore, 79.2% responded that they believed the designation would have an ‘effect in preventing secondhand smoke.’
In addition, the district received the Encouragement Award in the youth smoking prevention category for conducting the nation’s first tobacco denormalization education program ‘Geonganghaeyoung’ and the ‘Youth Harmful Environment Community Mapping Project.’
Meanwhile, according to the Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s ‘Community Health Survey,’ Seocho-gu’s smoking rate was 11.4% in 2023, the lowest compared to the Seoul average of 16.6%. In May, the district also received the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation at the ‘Outstanding Smoking Cessation Project Evaluation’ commemorating World No Tobacco Day.
Mayor Jeon Seong-su said, “I am pleased that Seocho-gu’s smoking cessation projects, which lead the nation, have been recognized externally. We will continue to implement various smoking cessation policies that residents can feel firsthand to create a healthy city, Seocho.”
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