Sakarya University enforces a campus-wide smoke-free policy aligned with national public health standards, protecting students, staff, and visitors from second-hand smoke and promoting harm reduction. Throughout 2024, the policy was fully in effect across indoor and outdoor spaces, with smoking permitted only in clearly designated areas. To support compliance, signage was refreshed and high-visibility floor markings were applied in 2024—especially near building entrances, windows, and air intakes—so campus boundaries and expectations remained unambiguous. Routine communication and visible reminders reinforced adherence, creating an environment where the healthy choice is the easy choice.
Education and behaviour-change support translated policy into sustained practice. In May 2024, actions aligned with World No Tobacco Day publicly reinforced smoke-free norms, raised awareness of second-hand smoke risks, and encouraged student participation in health advocacy. Across 2024, joint awareness campaigns with civil-society partners—including collaboration with the Green Crescent—strengthened community mobilisation, peer-to-peer reinforcement, and access to credible prevention resources. Trainings on addiction prevention delivered practical, skills-based methods for resisting initiation and supporting cessation, while the Harms of Tobacco seminar deepened scientific understanding of addiction risks and disease burden. Positive, identity-based messaging—such as the "Don't be addicted, be free" initiative—encouraged smoke-free lifestyles and resilience, and students seeking to reduce or cease tobacco use were guided confidentially to counselling and follow-up through the Medico-Social Centre.
By combining a clear regulatory framework with campus design cues, civil-society partnerships, targeted education, and accessible cessation support, the university reduced tobacco exposure, improved air quality, and lowered long-term disease risks in 2024. The result is a prevention-oriented culture in which compliance is credible, help-seeking is stigma-free, and health-promoting choices are easier to sustain.
