AT LEAST 250 Filipinos die each day, yes, each day, or about 90,000 a year, from smoking-related illnesses, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic diseases, and cancers, especially lung cancers. In Malaysia about 10,000, and Vietnam at least 40,000, die annually from tobacco-related conditions. Indonesia’s death toll is the worst: 400,000 a year.
The sad fact is that official global tobacco youth survey has revealed that the “smoking prevalence among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007,” and extrapolated to go even higher.
The province of Misamis Occidental will be launching a movement in fighting cigarette smoking dubbed as “Cigarettes Are Eating You Alive “campaign.
In a media advisory, Dr. Rachel Micarandayo, provincial health officer said the campaign is to inform the public about the ill effects of smoking.
Saying the campaign shows how cigarettes destroy vital organs of the body governor Herminia Ramiro said it is part of the province’s educational awareness program to help residents of Misamis Occidental the health risks of tobacco use.
The provincial health officers and anti-smoking advocates are set to meet the media on June 3 at Misamis Occidental Aqua marine Park (MOAP), Sincaban, Misamis Occidental to drum up its campaign.
Expected also in attendance is Chayla Marie Beniga, provincial project coordinator Bloomberg Initiative for Tobacco Control.
In 2006, Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City, launched a $125 million global initiative to reduce tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries. The Initiative was extended with a new $250 million commitment in 2008. Other funders have also made contributions to the Initiative.
The four major objectives of the Bloomberg Initiative are:
1. To refine and optimize tobacco control programs to help smokers stop using tobacco and to prevent children from starting.
2. To support public sector efforts to pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies, including taxing cigarettes, preventing smuggling, altering the image of tobacco and protecting workers from exposure to secondhand smoke.
3. To support advocates’ efforts to educate communities about the harms of tobacco and to enhance tobacco control activities that work towards a tobacco-free world.
4. To develop a rigorous system to monitor the status of global tobacco use.
The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use is implemented though five partner organizations: the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World Health Organization and the World Lung Foundation.
In Metro Manila, authorities announced a drive to strictly enforce a smoking ban in public places across the sprawling metropolis.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said that they would deploy policemen and specially trained enforcers across the city of 12 million people to round up violators.
The Philippines has a law banning smoking in public places dating from 2003, but it has largely been ignored in a country where according to surveys 28 percent of Filipinos aged 15 years and over, or 17.3 million people, are smokers.
"We must be very strict in implementing our anti-smoking regulation," agency chairman Francis Tolentino said in a statement.
"We should transform Metro Manila into a smoke-free community."
Those caught are to be fined 500 pesos ($11), which is more than the daily minimum wage in the impoverished country, and those who cannot pay the fine will be made to do community service.
Health advocates have also repeatedly called on the chain-smoking President Benigno Aquino to lead the campaign and quit.
Maricar Limpin, executive director of the anti-smoking lobby Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, lauded the intensified campaign.
Limpin said the government should go beyond its campaign and prod congress to pass legislation to raise taxes on tobacco.
The sad fact is that official global tobacco youth survey has revealed that the “smoking prevalence among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007,” and extrapolated to go even higher.
The province of Misamis Occidental will be launching a movement in fighting cigarette smoking dubbed as “Cigarettes Are Eating You Alive “campaign.
In a media advisory, Dr. Rachel Micarandayo, provincial health officer said the campaign is to inform the public about the ill effects of smoking.
Saying the campaign shows how cigarettes destroy vital organs of the body governor Herminia Ramiro said it is part of the province’s educational awareness program to help residents of Misamis Occidental the health risks of tobacco use.
The provincial health officers and anti-smoking advocates are set to meet the media on June 3 at Misamis Occidental Aqua marine Park (MOAP), Sincaban, Misamis Occidental to drum up its campaign.
Expected also in attendance is Chayla Marie Beniga, provincial project coordinator Bloomberg Initiative for Tobacco Control.
In 2006, Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City, launched a $125 million global initiative to reduce tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries. The Initiative was extended with a new $250 million commitment in 2008. Other funders have also made contributions to the Initiative.
The four major objectives of the Bloomberg Initiative are:
1. To refine and optimize tobacco control programs to help smokers stop using tobacco and to prevent children from starting.
2. To support public sector efforts to pass and enforce key laws and implement effective policies, including taxing cigarettes, preventing smuggling, altering the image of tobacco and protecting workers from exposure to secondhand smoke.
3. To support advocates’ efforts to educate communities about the harms of tobacco and to enhance tobacco control activities that work towards a tobacco-free world.
4. To develop a rigorous system to monitor the status of global tobacco use.
The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use is implemented though five partner organizations: the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World Health Organization and the World Lung Foundation.
In Metro Manila, authorities announced a drive to strictly enforce a smoking ban in public places across the sprawling metropolis.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said that they would deploy policemen and specially trained enforcers across the city of 12 million people to round up violators.
The Philippines has a law banning smoking in public places dating from 2003, but it has largely been ignored in a country where according to surveys 28 percent of Filipinos aged 15 years and over, or 17.3 million people, are smokers.
"We must be very strict in implementing our anti-smoking regulation," agency chairman Francis Tolentino said in a statement.
"We should transform Metro Manila into a smoke-free community."
Those caught are to be fined 500 pesos ($11), which is more than the daily minimum wage in the impoverished country, and those who cannot pay the fine will be made to do community service.
Health advocates have also repeatedly called on the chain-smoking President Benigno Aquino to lead the campaign and quit.
Maricar Limpin, executive director of the anti-smoking lobby Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, lauded the intensified campaign.
Limpin said the government should go beyond its campaign and prod congress to pass legislation to raise taxes on tobacco.
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