In Moscow, the Russian Public Health Association (a Union grantee) joined partners the Moscow Public Health Department and the Moscow City Drug Addiction Treatment Centre to organise the Second City Conference “Social aspects of smoking and modern prevention methods”. Medical professionals and public health specialists discussed the role of mass media in tobacco control; monitoring of tobacco use, the tobacco industry and tobacco control; and local prevention programmes.

In St Petersburg, 120 medical professionals and city health administrators attended the City Conference on Preventative Medicine on the theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day: tobacco and gender. Dr Andrey Dyomin of the Russian Public Health Association gave a presentation on the demographic and socio-economic benefits of tobacco control policy.

In Kranoyarsk, Siberia, Union-grantee the Krasnoyarsk Regional Center of Medical Prevention sponsored a conference “Medical facilities in Kranoyarsk without tobacco”. The organisation also hosted a press-conference to launch a smokefree healthcare project in the Krasnoyarsky region.

Medical professionals are a key audience for tobacco control messages and policy interventions as they are in a prime position to educate the public on the dangers of tobacco use, encourage behavior change among their patients, and set an example in terms of smokefree policy.