Romania experiences a high prevalence of smoking and an increasing percentage of cessation attempts with limited success. In 2012 Davidson College, Wake Forest University (USA) and University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Tirgu Mureș have launched a five-year research entitled “Building Capacity for Tobacco Research in Romania: A Partnership among Romanian, American and Hungarian Scientists”. The project is composed of seven complementary research studies that address a broad range of tobacco concerns specific to Romania. There are studied the smoking habits among medical students, children and adolescents, pregnant women, residents in social institutions, and there are implemented school-based, clinic-based and community- based prevention and cessation programs. It is analyzed the economic impact of smoking and the impact of secondhand smoke on air quality. Our tobacco initiative is expected to contribute to reduce tobacco use and to inform tobacco control legislation.
Keywords: smoking, prevention, cessation, legislation, partnership