Under the patronage of the Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Baghdad, Professor Dr. Ghassan Hamid Abdul Majeed, the Psychological Counseling and Educational Guidance Unit at the College organized, on Thursday, December 18, 2025, an awareness workshop entitled “The Negative Effects of Smoking from Health, Environmental, and Societal Perspectives.”
The workshop was held in cooperation with the Department of Surveying Engineering and the Continuing Education Unit, at Professor Dr. Fawzi Al-Khalisi Hall.
The workshop was attended by Professor Dr. Alaa Dawood Salman, Head of the Department of Surveying Engineering, in addition to a number of faculty members and staff of the College.
The workshop was delivered by Assistant Lecturer Tayba Hussein Mazal, the liaison officer of the Psychological Counseling and Educational Guidance Unit. She addressed smoking as one of the negative social and psychological phenomena prevalent among young people, highlighting its harmful health effects and its negative impact on students’ cognitive abilities and academic achievement, as well as its environmental and societal consequences. She also discussed the role of toxic substances resulting from smoking in weakening concentration and reducing motivation toward learning.
At the conclusion of the workshop, several recommendations were proposed, most notably the need to strengthen cooperation among educational and academic institutions to limit the phenomenon of smoking, to focus on building students’ personalities and addressing their intellectual and cultural gaps, to activate the role of the media in supporting guidance and awareness efforts, and to intensify programs aimed at helping smokers quit. These efforts contribute to establishing a healthy and safe university environment.
