Today, the activities of the conference announcing the completion of the activities of the research project "Developing the capabilities of health care providers in Egypt to apply counseling to pregnant women and their families regarding smoking cessation and avoiding active or passive smoking" were launched, which was implemented at the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, under the supervision of the principal researcher of the project, Prof. Wageda Abdel Rahman Anwar, Professor of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, in cooperation with New York University, represented by Prof. Omar Al-Shahawi and Prof. Scott Sherman, with the participation of the work team at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Demerdash Hospitals and the Ministry of Health and Population in Egypt.

The conference, which will last for two days, January 30 and 31, will be attended by local and international experts, who will give scientific lectures on changes in tobacco use and its impact on pregnancy from a local and global perspective, in addition to announcing the activities of the project.

In her speech during the conference, Dr. Negma Al-Qaseer, representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt, stressed the importance of combating smoking, especially among pregnant women, to protect fetuses and future children, and stressed the important role of health service providers to provide advice to women and work to prevent passive smoking in the environment surrounding children at home.

Prof. Wageda Anwar, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University and the main researcher of the project, explained that the conference activities include several scientific sessions and discussion sessions in the presence of local and international specialists from the Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, and the Faculty of Medicine at New York University.

Samples of research carried out by young doctors from Ain Shams University and research centers in the Emirates and Abu Dhabi on smoking and its effects on health, especially on children and pregnant women, will also be reviewed.

After the opening session, the first session included a lecture on promoting smoke-free homes in Egypt, during which Prof. Omar El-Shahawi, New York University School of Medicine, followed by a lecture on the development and implementation of an evidence-based training approach to counseling pregnant women on tobacco cessation and avoidance of passive smoking, delivered by Prof. Amani Mukhtar, Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University. Tom Looney, Professor of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Services, Lecture on Environmental Exposure of Mothers to Tobacco Smoke in the United Arab Emirates.

The next session was a discussion on how to implement effective clinical and public health policies to protect our children from exposure to smoke before birth or exposure to secondhand smoke in Egypt and what is realistic in Middle Eastern society, with the participation of Prof. Michael Weitzman, Research Professor, Department of Pediatrics, New York University. Dr. Wgeda Anwar, Professor of Public Health at Ain Shams University, Prof. Scott Sherman, Professor of Department of Population Health, New York University an Dr. Karim Labib, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

This was followed by a scientific session that included a group of researches in the field of smoking and its impact on humans presented by young researchers, followed by discussions among the attendees to exchange visions and experiences.

The activities of the second day are scheduled to witness two lectures, in addition to a workshop on the journey of scientific writing: how to write, cooperate and enjoy doing it, followed by a dialogue with researchers about the research steps and the difficulties that the study was exposed to and how they were remedied and the achievements that the study reached.

There will also be a continuation of the discussion sessions on future ways of cooperation, in addition to following up the sessions and discussions to come up with recommendations that benefit the health community from the experiences of the participants in the conference.