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THERE
are now an estimated 4 million Filipinos aged 11 to 19
years who are cigarette smokers, having rapidly
increased from 1.4 million in 2005, according to the
Department of Health.
A study
by the department and the World Health Organization last
year showed the increase was 23 percent over two years,
so that it has seriously worried the department owing to
expected future health complications from this large
group.
“By
preventing our children from starting to smoke, we can
reduce the impact of tobacco on (them),” said Dr. Marina
Baquilod of the National Epidemilogy Center, one of the
authors. She said that of the 4 million, about 2.7
million are boys and 1.4 million are girls.
The
study noted that 80 percent of these young tobacco users
have seen cigarette ads, an observation that seems to
validate the WHO’s recommendation to ban the promotion
of products to reduce the number of smokers.
Dr.
Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control and Alliance Philippines (FCAP),
said, “This 23-percent [rise] could further increase in
a matter of three years” if regulations against tobacco
promotion are not imposed, such as the banning of
advertisements.
Lung
cancer, one of the top 3 killers of Filipinos, is mainly
attributed to cigarette smoking.
Limpin’s
group has been lobbying for the implementation of
Section 22 of the Tobacco Control Act, which states that
starting July 1, 2007, all outdoor advertisements of
tobacco are banned.
She
reported, however, that only Davao City and Legazpi City
have complied with that provision.
The WHO
earlier warned that tobacco smoking is expected to kill
one billion people this century and recommended that
aside from banning ads, higher taxes be imposed on
manufacturers to discourage the vice especially among
children. |
