Hong Soon-ok, Bupyeong District Council Member: "Senior Smoking Prevention Guardians Should Be More Than Just Simple Jobs, They Must Be Effective Smoking Cessation Measures"

Incheon Bupyeong District is set to actively promote the 'Senior Smoking Environment Guardians' project, which aims to guide smoking behavior in non-smoking areas such as subway stations in connection with senior jobs. In this regard, the Bupyeong District Council suggested that there is a need for securing expertise and system maintenance that can increase the actual smoking cessation success rate beyond a simple campaign.

During the second report of the Urban Environment Committee at the 274th Bupyeong District Council temporary session held on January 29, Council Member Hong Soon-ok (Independent, Galsan 1 & 2-dong, Samsan 1-dong) focused on questioning the effectiveness of the '2026 Senior Smoking Environment Guardians Project' which was organized as a new project this year.

According to the Health Promotion Division of the Bupyeong District Health Center, the project involves organizing 20 seniors into pairs to be stationed around Bupyeong Station, Sangok Station, and Galsan Station, where there is a high flow of people and frequent smoking complaints. A district official explained the purpose of the project, stating, "To reduce friction that occurs when young people are caught smoking, we focused on improving awareness through gentle guidance from seniors."

Council Member Hong Soon-ok identified 'the quality of job training' as the top priority for the success of the project. She emphasized, "Before being deployed on-site, training on conflict management with smokers and specialized knowledge related to smoking cessation must be conducted. It should include professional activities that lead to actual smoking cessation in connection with the health center's smoking cessation clinic, rather than just standing with a promotional sash."

In response, a district official stated, "We plan to conduct over two hours of specialized training through smoking cessation counselors in February, and we are planning active linkage activities such as distributing smoking cessation clinic promotional materials."

During the meeting, the issue of residents' access to information was also brought up. Council Member Hong stated, "It is inconvenient that there is no separate guidance when searching for non-smoking areas on the district website," and demanded, "Since the data for lifestyle management guidance has already been established, improve the search quality immediately so that residents can easily check non-smoking areas at a glance."

Additionally, Council Member Hong urged, "For this project not to be a one-time job initiative, specific performance indicators such as the registration rate of the smoking cessation clinic must be supported by the end of the year. If the results are confirmed, please create a structure where seniors' social participation and residents' health promotion are mutually beneficial, even if it means increasing the project budget."