The college of pharmacy at the University of Baghdad has organized an online symposium on (Smoking: risks and replacement therapies) in commitment to the directives and efforts exerted by the ministry of higher education and scientific research for tobacco control in educational institutions in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic. This event lasted for 3 days and witnessed three lectures delivered by faculty members for increasing awareness among the undergraduate and postgraduate students. The first lecture is entitled (Nicotine addiction: mechanisms and harmful effects) given by the lecturer Dr. Alaa Radhi Khudhair from the Medicines and Poisons Division in which she talked about nicotine which is the main component in cigarettes and the need to understand its molecular mechanisms in reference to some new therapies adopted when treating the addicted people.

Then the lecturer Zainab Thabet Saleh, a faculty member at the Pharmaceutics Branch delivered the second lecture entitled “Secondhand smoking and its hazards” in which she addressed many topics, including key facts and data about smoking in Iraq, toxic substances found in cigarettes and the methods used to avoid exposure to secondhand smoke as much as possible, in addition to the government role in enacting laws and legislation that limit the spread of this phenomenon in the country and its consequences on the whole society. The last lecture was delivered by the lecturer Dr. Ahmed Majid Hameed from the Clinical Pharmacy Branch entitled (Dangers of smoking, consequences, alternative methods and quit smoking tips) in which he addressed the negative effects of smoking on human health and alternative methods that can be followed to quit smoking and the positive effects of this attitude on the human body. Also he asserted that the first step is to be motivated by having a powerful reason to quit, such as for protecting your family from secondhand smoke, or to lower your chance of getting lung cancer and heart disease, or simply to look and feel younger.

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