A total of 63 experts from 23 European countries , including several professionals from the Tobacco Control Unit of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) , participated on 2, 3 and 4 November in the inaugural meeting of the Joint Action SAFE ( Joint Action on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention including Smoke and Aerosol Free Environments ) held in Athens, Greece. This initiative, co-financed by the European Union through the EU4Health programme, will last four years.
JA-SAFE aims to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases , such as cancer, and to minimise associated risk factors at both individual and population level. The project is structured in nine work packages spread over five main thematic areas : preventing alcohol consumption, smoke-free environments, supporting smoking cessation, promoting a tobacco-free generation and strengthening health promotion and disease prevention across Europe. The initiative recognises smoking and other forms of tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of morbidity and premature mortality in the European Union.
In this context, the ICO Tobacco Control Unit plays a prominent role, actively participating in the implementation of the joint action and leading one of the work packages dedicated to promoting a smoke- and aerosol-free Europe . In addition, the team also contributes to specific tasks related to the prevention of alcohol consumption and the scaling up of tobacco control interventions and the creation of smoke- and aerosol-free healthcare environments .
