KOMPLY Emerging Leaders team to run workshop at 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health

A team from the 2016 Emerging Leaders cohort will run a workshop on smoke-free law (SFL) at the 17^th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa.

The KOMPLY Project team was assembled by the World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Programme to assess the level of compliance with Uganda’s new 100% smoke-free law in hospitality venues. Its aim is to support compliance with the law in bars and restaurants in Kampala, Uganda, by monitoring compliance levels, communicating these to the public, government officials, and civil society organizations (CSOs), and supporting CSOs in their advocacy efforts for stronger compliance.

The workshop, entitled ‘Monitoring Compliance of a Smoke-free Law and Overcoming Obstacles in Compliance with Smoke-free Law in Hospitality Venues’, will take place on Tuesday 6^th March at 9.30am. It will provide an overview of the benefits of comprehensive SFL, the process of its implementation, how to overcome interference with SFL, and lessons learned in Uganda, Uruguay and the United States.

In brief, attendees will:

• Learn to take systematic observations using a checklist and measure real-time indoor air quality using particulate matter (PM)
• Obtain an overview of how to collect epidemiological evidence regarding the harm of SHS using systematic observational checklists, and using a PM2.5 machine to measure real-time tobacco-related fine particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns
• Gain a better understanding of how to overcome obstacles that hinder the effectiveness of SFL in hospitality venues

The event is open to all delegates but is specifically designed for tobacco control researchers, tobacco control programmes evaluation staff, tobacco control partner organizations and other public health professionals involved with the evaluation of SFL. It will be chaired by Vinayak M Prasad (World Health Organization, Switzerland), Rana J Singh (The Union-South East Asia Office, India), Lindsay Robertson (University of Otago, New Zealand) and Kellen N Nyamurungi (Centre for Tobacco Control, Uganda).

The 17^th World Conference on Tobacco or Health will take place on 7-9 March 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, under the tagline “Uniting the World for a Tobacco-Free Generation”.