Following the passage of a regional decree banning smoking in health-care facilities, the Government of Krasnodar Krai launched a campaign to develop smokefree health-care policies in collaboration with The Union. The ban will be implemented in all types of health-care facilities across this region in southern Russia.

The “Healthy Kuban” project is part of an overall “Stay Healthy!”strategy by the Governor of the region to prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. It aims to encourage people in the region to adopt healthier lifestyles, which includes raising awareness about the dangers of tobacco use.

Close to 300 chief physicians and directors attended a regional conference on 4 July on “Smokefree Medical Facilities – Implementation Steps for the ‘Healthy Kuban’ Project”. They heard presentations by the leading experts on tobacco cessation and treatment, Professor Galina Sakharova, Deputy Director of the Scientific Pulmonology Institute, and Professor Nikolai Antonov, Chair of the Pulmonology Department at the Scientific Pulmonology Institute, Moscow. One of the highlights of the conference was a direct link to the surgery room in Regional Hospital #1, where the Chief Regional Surgeon, Professor Porkhanov, was performing a lung cancer operation on a patient who smoked.  

Prof. Sakarova and Prof. Antonov also offered a training workshop the next day for approximately 80 participants. Questions on the role of the medical community in implementing smokefree health-care and on smokefree policies in general were encouraged.

The Regional Decree on Smoking was recently released by the Government of Krasnodar Krai’s Health Care Department. It not only forbids smoking in health-care facilities, but also bans selling tobacco products and tobacco advertising in these facilities.