ILOILO City – Smoking causes addiction and its ill-effects may cause one an illness, or worst an early death. Thus, as early as possible, the young ones must avoid the taste of cigarette by not exposing them to this vice.
This was stressed by Dr. Althea Tampos, head of Molo Health Center and one of the guest speakers during yesterday’s art installation of 321 pairs of shoes and slippers in SM City Iloilo to commemorate the 321 Filipinos who die everyday due to tobacco-related diseases.
“My appeal to our youth, do not start smoking. Amo gid na sya ang maka-prevent sa pagdamu sang mga smokers,” Tampos appealed.
The medical officer lamented that at a young age or as early as 10 years old, kids are tasked to buy cigarettes and even told by their fathers to light it.
“Most of the smokers who started young started sa pagsindi-sindi lang una sang sigarilyo. Tilaw-tilaw,” said Tampos.
From there, the addiction to cigarette takes off, Tampos said, adding one stick of cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals that can damage not only the lungs but all other systems of the body including the skin.
“Smoking can cause addiction because sang presence of nicotine. For smokers, especially sa mga tatay, indi niyo pagsugoon ang mga kabataan magsindi para sa inyo,” she said.
Based on an anti-tobacco survey, 96 to 98 percent of smokers know the ill-effects of smoking but still they continue smoking due to addiction.
Smoking also decrease the life expectancy of the smokers by 10 years and it does not only cause ill-effects to the smokers themselves but also to the people around them through passive smoking.
“Hambal nila smokers never grow old, that is because they die young,” Tampos added.
Aside from health, smoking can also harm the environment through tons of cigarette butts being thrown daily.
“So ma-save naton ang Mother Earth kon indi pa gid kita magsigarilyo. Kag mag-advocate pa gid kita sa mga kilala, let’s encourage them to stop smoking. I hope we can be heroes sa mga kabataan. We can be heroes in our small ways,” the Molo Health Center head added.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s art installation was led by the Iloilo City government through the Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Task Force (ICAST), in partnership with public interest law group ImagineLaw.
The art installation of 321 pairs of footwear is part of the groups’ call for stronger tobacco control policies to protect public health from tobacco companies. The said new and used pairs of footwear came from donations and will be given to the Ati community and Balay Dalayunan.
Atty. Sophia San Luis, the law group’s executive director, lauded the commitment of the Iloilo City government to protect the Ilonggos from the harms of tobacco and vape.
In recent years, the Iloilo City government under Mayor Jerry Treñas had earned praises from the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) for its anti-smoking campaign. Treñas, a former smoker himself, is a known public health and tobacco control champion.
Last year, the Sangguniang Panlungsod updated its anti-smoking ordinance to include stiffer penalties and stronger regulations on heated tobacco products such as vapes and e-cigarettes.
“Nanawagan po kami sa gobyerno na pangalagaan ang kalusugan ng mga Pilipino. Sana ay gayahin ng national government ang example ng Iloilo na hindi nagpapadala sa panliligaw ng tobacco industry at they remain steadfast sa kanilang commitment na magpatupad ng kanilang tobacco control laws,” said San Luis.
ImagineLaw asserted the liability of tobacco companies to the health crisis caused by their products.
“We need to remind the public that tobacco companies and their products prey on the lungs,” San Luis said.
Other guest speakers during the event were Iloilo City Lone District Rep. Julienne Baronda; ICAST Executive Director Iñigo Garingalao; and city councilors Johnny Young, Alan Zaldivar and Miguel Treñas.
Baronda, for her part, was thankful and happy because anti-smoking initiative and campaign were her priorities when she was still a Sangguniang Kabataan president of this city and now, it has gone a long way already in partnership with other stakeholders. She assured to continue to support the campaign in Congress through possible legislation.
ICAST and ImagineLaw also held a signature campaign yesterday to encourage the public especially the youth to actively take part in the campaign against cigarettes and vapes./PN