Get into Smoke-Free Shape Too!

This year's campaign of the Hungarian Scientific Association of Harm Reduction and Environmental Diseases and füstmentes.hu aims to raise awareness of the individual's choices and to help people to develop a lifestyle with less environmental risk through expert trainers, with individual training plans and practical examples, the initiative's promoters announced on Thursday in connection with the Brain Bar 2023 Future Festival.

A gastroblogger, a hospital director, a firefighter, a successful entrepreneur and a popular podcaster are among the faces of the "We're getting you in smoke-free shape!" harm reduction initiative. The campaign's organizers are using the term "smoke-free" in both its literal and figurative sense: they are aiming to impart knowledge that will bring us closer to a lifestyle with less environmental risk in all aspects of our daily lives. Less smoke means less environmental and health damage. But it is also a societal goal that requires our vision, and we can achieve this through awareness raising, attitude building and personal participation.

In this year's campaign, experts who have already implemented personalized, tailorable, everyday harm reduction practices in their own fields of expertise will present training and personalised training plans to make a credible case for change to the public. The initiative will provide access to knowledge, development and up-to-date skills for all those who are ready to make a difference in their own lives and those of their environment, to reduce negative environmental impacts and to live more sustainably and safely. To this end, it uses interesting articles, educational videos and fun and playful content to raise awareness of the different areas of mitigation. This knowledge can then be reinforced with practical tips during the campaign, creating an attitude where responsible, sustainable thinking gradually becomes more and more part of life.

"People who exercise at least 2.5 hours a week live on average 4.2 years longer. Harm reduction can mean not just not doing something that has been scientifically proven to be bad for your health – like not smoking cigarettes – but also making changes to your life that have also been proven to reduce your risk of disease. As a private person, I have been working for years to incorporate as many sustainable solutions into my daily routine as possible, and at the Szent Ferenc Hospital under my leadership I can do this on a larger scale." But change can also be achieved by making small changes to our cooking and shopping habits, or to our housekeeping in an environmentally responsible way, for which the campaign now underway will provide tangible, experience-based help and proven tools," Dr Emil Toldy-Schedel, President of the Association, said.