Introduction:
World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than one billion smokers around the world, and 80% of them live in low- and middle-income countries. The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats today, killing more than eight million people each year [WHO 2019]. More than seven million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, while 1.2 million are the second-hand smokers [WHO 2019]. Having knowledge about health risks of tobacco use is one important factor for people to avoid smoking and by this way every health professional can play a role in controlling tobacco consumption. Raising awareness of health risks of tobacco use and educating health professional students about smoking cessation technique is essential.

Objectives:
This project aimed to educate students in physical therapy about health risks of tobacco use and smoking cessation technique.

Methods:
Sixteen universities, which had physical therapy program, were invited to participate in the project. There were 10 universities conducting workshops for their physical therapy students (n=791). The workshops were held in extracurricular time. After training, physical therapy students were asked to apply the skills obtained in the workshop in clinical practice.

Results:
The results showed that 1,012 smokers were identified by students and received information about health risks of tobacco use and how to quit smoking in a time period as short as 6 months. This project showed that training healthcare professional students about health risks of tobacco use and smoking cessation technique as well as asking them to apply the knowledge in practice was an effective tobacco control.

Conclusion(s):
Further studies should conducted to validate the findings of this study by assessing a success rate of smoking cessation in these population and duration of student involvement in tobacco control after training.