CHANDIGARH,16.05.23-Professor Sonu Goel of Department of community medicine and School of Public Health PGIMER, Chandigarh was invited by Turkish thoracic Society to deliver talks on Tobacco endgame in India, development of national resource Centre for Tobacco Control and Journey of Leadership and Management Programs for 161 ITEC nations. Professor Goel was among the six international eminent experts who was invited in 2000+ gathering of the Turkish thoracic Society conference, which was held at Antalya, Turkey from 9th to 13th May 2023. During one of his talks Dr Goel discussed the developments towards tobacco endgame in the country in the form of banning of electronic cigarettes, implementation of 85% pictorial health warnings and development of Tobacco vendor licensing policy in many states of the country.

Professor Goel also discussed the tobacco endgame hub being established at PGIMER Chandigarh which is doing multi centric research on tobacco control and endgame and conducting various online and off-line courses on Tobacco Control in India. Dr Goel also demonstrated the resource Centre for Tobacco Control in India which is first of its kind centre globally storing diverse information and researches from across the country, circular and orders from different states and helping implementers, policy makers and general public in assessing information for tobacco cessation. RCTC has partnered with almost 50 organisations nationally and internationally and is being viewed by over 6 Lakh viewers.

Dr Goel is the chair of Tobacco Control section of international union against tuberculosis and lung diseases and also leading the empower research group in the 20,000+ members international organisation. Dr Goel is the adjunct faculty of two leading global universities, which are ranked under 100 in the World and director of resource Centre for Tobacco Control, the first national resource Centre established in India. Dr Goel has over 200 manuscripts to his credit, besides being editor of two text books. Dr Goyal is also the director of International Public health management development programmes commissioned by the Ministry of external affairs, government of India.