Camille Lopez Bayanihan

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Smoking kills 250 daily

First Posted 09:16:00 12/07/2009 AT LEAST 250 Filipinos die each day, yes, each day, or about 90,000 a year, from smokingrelated illnesses, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic diseases, and cancers, especially lung cancers. In Malaysia about 10,000, and Vietnam at least 40,000, die annually from tobaccorelated conditions. Indonesias 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. We are losing the war against smoking, stated Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), indicating that the law has not been effective. The 2003 act sets both the guidelines for and regulation of the packaging, sale, distribution, and advertisements of tobacco products, and also mandating the printing of warnings about the harmful effects of smoking. Those figures above are from the 2005-2006 Tobacco and Poverty Study in the Philippines conducted by the College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines, National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO).
By Dr. Philip S. Chua Cebu Daily News

Reaksyon: Walang ni isang magandang bagay na maidudulot sa atin ang paninigarilyo. Una, ito ay masama para sa ating kalusugan at ito ay pwedeng maging sanhi ng marami ibat ibang mga sakit. Pangalawa, idadagdag lang natin ito sa ating mga gastusin. Sino ba namang may gustong bumili ng isang bagay na pwede maging sanhi ng mga sakit? Para sa akin, nagsasayang lang ng buhay at pera ang mga taong naninigarilyo. Imbis na makaipon ng pera, ito ay ginagastos pa sa mga bisyo. Paano kaya tayo uunlad kung ganito ang mga tao sa bansa?