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Key Commitments

Tobacco-Free Initiative

The adoption of the Tobacco-Free Initiative demonstrated a commitment to providing a safe and healthy working and learning environment. 

The Initiative adheres to the Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative (TFCCI) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS). 

To protect the health of students, staff, and faculty, the School implemented a smoke-free policy in 1991. We expanded those restrictions in August 2014 with a Tobacco-Free Initiative to prohibit the use of any tobacco product (including cigars, cigarillos, hookah-smoked products, any oral or chewed tobacco and e-cigarettes) in all buildings, facilities and vehicles. This also includes all outdoor campus grounds. We also discourage tobacco use on city property adjacent to campus grounds.

A tobacco-free community goes beyond fresh air. As we advocate for improved health in communities across the globe, we know that we must start by supporting our own community to be as healthy as possible. This includes cessation programs like the one offered by The Monday Campaigns. Associated with the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, The Monday Campaigns' Quit and Stay Quit Monday program gives tobacco users a new chance to quit every Monday, building a healthy lifestyle step-by-step.

Through a comprehensive policy which expanded tobacco-free zones, prohibited tobacco-related advertising and promotions, and supported tobacco cessation programs for all members of the JHSPH community, we believe we have created a healthier, more productive living/learning environment for all members of our campus community.

World No Tobacco Day

The School’s Institute for Global Tobacco Control marked World No Tobacco Day on May 31, sharing a number of important resources exposing ways the tobacco industry tries to attract youth and adolescents.

Bloomberg School deans past and present talk about our tobacco-free committment.

“We cannot reach our goals as health educators and researchers if we don’t live a healthy life ourselves,” says Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD '79, ScM '75. “Our Tobacco-Free Initiative shows everyone who comes on our campus that we are as committed to our own health as we are to the health of the global community.”