Monday, October 17, 2022

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• Celebrate Library Week
• We hope you brought your walking shoes
• Zero Waste Month begins
• Study adds to evidence that bans of menthol cigarettes help smokers to quit
• Senate meets today and other notes

Celebrate Library Week

A message from the Library.

Welcome Library Week! The University of Waterloo is celebrating Library Week from October 17 to 21. All month long, libraries and library partners across Canada are raising awareness of the valuable role libraries play in Canadians’ lives.  

There are several opportunities throughout the week to celebrate the Library and learn more about how it supports the campus community. 

We hope you brought your walking shoes

A message from Uwaterloolife.

Join us at the annual Thrive Walk on campus. If you're joining us from Waterloo campus, we’ll be meeting at the B.C. Matthews Hall (BMH) Green at 11:30 a.m. and making our way along the route together in support, promotion, and solidarity of mental health and to foster an inclusive community of well-being.

Healthy snacks will be provided. Many thanks to Martin's Family Fruit Farm for their generous support.

The route of today's Thrive Walk.

Directly following the Thrive Walk, warm up and enjoy a delicious bowl of soup at the United Way Soup Day in the Science Teaching Complex (STC) atrium in support of Waterloo’s United Way campaign. Soup is served by donation (suggested $5). Cash, debit and credit will be accepted.

Details for satellite campuses:

• Stratford Campus: 12:00 p.m. starts in room 1004
• Cambridge Campus: 12:30 p.m. starts on the back terrace

Can’t make it to the walk? Check out other Thrive events that may fit your schedule.

Zero Waste Month begins

A message from the Sustainability Office and Plant Operations.

The Sustainability Office and Plant Operations – Environmental Services invite the campus community to participate in Zero Waste Month. From October 17 to 31, employees and students are encouraged to take part in fun challenges and events to support waste reduction on campus. Zero Waste Month activities will include:

1. Launch of the Shift: Zero Pledge: Show your support for a sustainable, zero waste future on campus by signing the pledge.
2. Shift: Zero Waste Sorting Game: Play the Shift: Zero sorting game to test your sorting smarts.
3. Repair Workshop: Join 4RepairKW on Tuesday, Oct 18 (4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.) in E7 for another repair workshop on campus. Bring your clothing, household items, small electrical items (120V), or your sewing machine in need of repair and learn valuable skills alongside our volunteer fixers.
4. Zero Waste Fair: Stop by the DC fishbowl on Friday, Oct 28 (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) to chat with groups on campus who support waste reduction programs and initiatives. Plus, the first 150 people who bring their own mug will get free coffee.

For more details, please visit the Zero Waste Month webpage and follow the Sustainability Office on social media for resources, stories, and interactive activities throughout the month.

Study adds to evidence that bans of menthol cigarettes help smokers to quit

This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

A new study concludes that the 2020 European ban on menthol cigarettes made it more likely that menthol smokers would quit smoking, supporting previous Canadian research on the positive public health impact of banning menthol cigarettes.  

Christina Kyriakos, from Imperial College London, led the study in collaboration with researchers from Maastricht University and the Trimbos Institute in the Netherlands, and the International Tobacco Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

“This Dutch study is our second major national study to provide evidence of the powerful impact of banning menthol cigarettes on quitting, which supports proposed menthol bans in the U.S. and other countries,” said Geoffrey T. Fong, professor of psychology and public health sciences at Waterloo, and the principal investigator of the ITC Project.

The research team surveyed a national sample of adult smokers of menthol and non-menthol cigarettes in the Netherlands before and after the EU menthol ban. Of the menthol smokers surveyed before and after the ban, 26.1 per cent had quit smoking. This quit rate was higher than the control group of non-menthol smokers, of whom only 14.1 per cent had quit.

In fact, the increased quit rate of 12 per cent of menthol smokers after the European ban is greater than the increased quit rate of 7.3 per cent found in an ITC study of the menthol ban that was in effect across Canada in 2018.

For decades, tobacco companies have added menthol to cigarettes because it creates a cooling sensation that reduces the harshness of smoke. It makes it easier to start smoking, causing non-smoking youth to be more likely to progress to regular smoking and become addicted to nicotine.

For more than a decade, the World Health Organization and many other public health authorities have called on governments to ban menthol in cigarettes to reduce smoking, which kills 7.1 million smokers and 1.2 million non-smokers from second-hand smoke per year worldwide. The global tobacco control treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, calls upon countries to prohibit or restrict menthol and other additives that make smoking easier.

To date, 35 countries have banned menthol cigarettes. On April 28, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a proposed rule to ban menthol in cigarettes and cigars. An ITC study published that day on the impact of the Canadian ban projected that a ban on menthol cigarettes in the U.S. would lead more than 1.3 million smokers to quit.

The Dutch study also found that one-third of menthol smokers reported continuing to smoke menthol cigarettes even after the ban. The tobacco industry markets a wide range of accessories to enable people to add menthol flavouring to tobacco products themselves.

“These tobacco industry actions undermine the effectiveness of the menthol ban. By tightening the regulations to include these menthol add-ons, the impact of the menthol ban on quitting could be even greater,” said Marc Willemsen, co-author of the Dutch study and professor in tobacco control research at Maastricht University and scientific director of tobacco control at the Trimbos Institute.

The study, Impact of the European Union’s menthol cigarette ban on smoking cessation outcomes: Longitudinal findings from the 2020–2021 ITC Netherlands Surveys, appears in the journal Tobacco Control.

Senate meets today and other notes

The University's Senate meets today at 3:30 p.m. in NH 3407. Among the agenda items:

• A motion to approve the following membership on the Policy 76/Policy 77 Drafting Committee: Mary Hardy (statistics and actuarial science, FAUW appointee); Su-Yin Tan (geography and environmental management, FAUW appointee); Paul Wehr (psychology, FAUW appointee); David DeVidi (associate vice-president, academic, President’s appointee); Anna Esselment (political science, President’s appointee); and Ian VanderBurgh (mathematics, President’s appointee);
• A motion to approve the establishment of the Centre for Sustainability and Business (CSB);
• A motion to approve the proposed correction of the official name of the Environmental Sciences plans, both Honours and Honours Co-operative, to be pluralized (Environmental Sciences versus Environmental Science), effective 1 September 2023;
• A motion to approve the appointment of Dr. Scott Kline as the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) Academic Colleague for the University of Waterloo, term to 30 April 2025;
• A motion to approve revisions to the Undergraduate Communication Requirement for the Faculty of Health, effective 1 September 2023;
• A motion to approve revisions to the Invalid Plan Combinations, effective 1 September 2023;
• A motion to approve the lists of candidates for degrees, diplomas and certificates as recommended by the Faculty councils and the associate vice-president, graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs, and to authorize the chair to act on behalf of Senate, based on the recommendation of the registrar or, in the case of graduate students, the associate vice-president, graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs, to add to or change the lists of candidates for degrees, diplomas, and certificates, provided that the chair report back to Senate to advise of any such additions or changes.

There will be a number of reports presented to Senate including an update on the University's Strategic Plan 2020-2025, the President's Report, the Vice-President, Administration & Finance's report, and the Vice-President, Research and International's report.

Free yoga classes for UWaterloo staff are back: 

"Thanks to grants from Staff Excellence Fund provided by the UWSA, there are free, on-premise Yoga classes available to UW staff," says a note from the class organizers. "Classes are taught by our wonderful, professional instructors: Eva, Spring, and Joshua. Tuesday classes are taught by either Eva or Spring and Wednesdays are taught by Joshua. All classes happen from 12:05 p.m. to 12:55 p.m. The classes are also livestreamed and available to watch at any time from their respective Teams channels. People who wish to participate must be part of the Teams channel for that class and signup on a weekly basis through Teams."

• To participate in the Tuesday class, please contact Lisa Liu: lisa.liu.1@uwaterloo.ca.
• To participate in the Wednesday class, please contact James French: jfrench@uwaterloo.ca.

"Lisa and/or James will add you to the Teams channel for the class where you can then sign up for on-premise classes, join livestreams, or watch archived classes."

Here's today's Keeping Well at Work Daily Inspiration:

Thrive Walk!

Join the annual Thrive Walk on campus, in your neighborhood, or at home! If you're joining on campus, meet at the B.C. Matthews Hall (BMH) Green at 11:30am. Let’s join together in support, promotion, and solidarity of mental health to foster an inclusive community of well-being.