If young Filipinos will not be stopped from smoking then the Philippines will continue to be the second largest tobacco consumers in Southeast Asia.
“Over the years we have seen how tobacco companies increase their presence in Southeast Asia as it becomes more difficult for them to market their products in high-income regions. A big part of their strategy is to target the youth as replacement smokers for adults who fall ill and die of this habit,” New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) President Emer Rojas said.
According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), more than one in four Filipino children aged 13 to 15 are smokers. Among those in this age group who smoke, 17.5 percent are girls and 28.3 percent are boys. This does not include children of this age group who are exposed to secondhand smoke either at home or in public places.
It is estimated that 55 percent of Filipino youth are exposed to secondhand smoke at home, while 65 percent get it in public places. Rojas said the Asean is an important market to tobacco companies as 10 percent of the world’s 1.25 billion adult smokers are in this region. The Philippines is the second largest tobacco consumer in the Asean next to Indonesia with 17.3 million Filipino adults smoking.
It is believed that the majority of them have started the vice at a young age. Last year the NVAP campaigned against the “Be Malboro” advertisement, a $7-million marketing strategy by Philip Morris International aimed at targeting young people.
Ten Filipinos die every hour due to smoking, the single most preventable risk factor for cancer and other noncommunicable diseases. “If we want to slow down smoking we must arm the youth with information and establish strong tobacco control systems that will protect them from taking up this deadly habit,” Rojas said.
Recently, tNVAP held a youth forum about the effects of smoking among young Filipinos, and to increase the capacity of young people on current tobacco control laws and smoke-free initiatives.