Unitec Institute of Technology has announced that its campuses at Mt Albert (Auckland Central), Waitakere (West Auckland) and Albany (North Shore) will become smoke-free from May 31, 2013, coinciding with ‘World No Tobacco Day’.
Unitec Chief Executive Dr Rick Ede said that his institution was happy to join a number of other organisations in the tertiary education sector who have made their campuses smoke-free (Auahi Kore).
“The policy will apply to all staff, students and visitors to our campuses, and cover all car parks and vehicles while on Unitec grounds. We will put in place a number of steps to help ease the transition towards becoming a 100% smoke-free organisation,” he said.
Dr Ede said that Unitec was committed to providing a healthy working and learning environment for students, staff and communities.
“Smoking is a major cause of sickness and death, and we hope our decision would motivate the Unitec community to consider a healthier lifestyle, free of smoking. We know that managing or quitting smoking can be a real challenge and hence we will make available a range of support options,” he said.
The support options will include (a) ‘Quit Smoking’ workshops for staff and students who wish to quit smoking (b) Access to subsidised Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) for those who want help to manage their addiction and (c) Promotion of the round-the-clock free Quitline Service.
Dr Ede said that Unitec’s Health, Safety and Environment team will also train staff and students to support its ‘Quit Smoking’ and NRT education programme, which will be launched early next year.
According to Quitline, up to 5000 New Zealanders die from smoking-related illness each year and that a packet-a-day smoker spends around $4500 a year.
