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OBJECTIVES
At the Unit of Tobacco Control (Unitat de Control del Tabaquisme in Catalan, UCT), we are working on multiple research projects and tobacco control interventions. Our main objectives are to improve the current knowledge and evidence in the areas of determinants and approaches to prevent and control consumption of tobacco as well as population exposure to tobacco smoke and e-cigarettes emissions, essentially applying appropriate epidemiologic methods. Tobacco control is one of the priority objectives of the Health Plan of Catalonia and other directives (oncology and respiratory diseases), for this reason throughout the projects developed at UCT we aim to directly impact on tobacco prevention and control both in our immediate environment (ICO) and at the national and international levels.
[blockquote border_color=”#00a9e0″ bg_color=”#f2f2f2″ effect=”none”]Being a young and enthusiastic unit, UCT Team comprises a multidisciplinary group of professionals trained in medicine, psychology, epidemiology, nursing, anthropology, statistics and other fields of health science. [/blockquote]
ACTIVITIES
The UCT carries a dual task. On one hand, research and evaluation, that include projects measuring impact of exposure to second-hand smoke of tobacco on population, tobacco effect on employers of hospitality sector or use of markers to measure environmental tobacco smoke and aerosols of electronic cigarettes as well as biomarkers in humans. On the other hand, we are responsible for the intervention initiatives such as Catalan Smoke-Free Hospital Network as well as health promotion services as tobacco control consulting that offers support to quit smoking for the employers and patients of the ICO-IDIBELL group.
[blockquote border_color=”#00a9e0″ bg_color=”#f2f2f2″ effect=”none”]At present, the UCT maintains firm collaborations with national and international institutions, including the World Health Organization, which has designated the UCT-ICO as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control[/blockquote]
ORIGINS
The origin of the UCT is the Tobacco Research Group led by Dr. Esteve Fernández that was formed in 2000 in the course of the Prevention and Cancer Control Service of the ICO. The group has developed diverse research projects in the area of tobacco control both coordinated by ICO Team and in collaboration with other institutions such as the Public Health Agency of Barcelona and Catalonia, the Research Institute “Mario Negri” (Milan), the Institute for Global Tobacco Control of Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), the Center for Tobacco control Research and Education of the University of California (San Francisco), the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The activities of the Centre have expanded with UCT participation in the European research projects and coordination of the Catalan Smoke-Free Hospital Network, notably increasing the number of the professionals involved and, respectively, productivity in both areas, research and intervention activities.
The group is accredited by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of the Generalitat of Catalonia as a Consolidated Research Group (Research Group on Epidemiology of Tobacco Control, 2014SGR999) and participates in the Thematic Network of Cooperative Research of Cancer (Prevention and cancer control group, RTICC RD12 / 0036/0053).