DOH spearheads observance of "World No Tobacco Day"
By Marivic Alcober
Tacloban City (May 29) -- The Department of Health (DOH) – Eastern Visayas, through its Regional Director Dr. Teogenes F. Baluma will spearhead the observance of “World No Tobacco Day” on May 31.
Carrying the theme “Dismantling the Myths on 2nd Hand Smoking”, the observance will be in coordination with other government and non-government entities plus other stakeholders. To start with, there will be a motorcade around the city of Tacloban, after which a symposium will be conducted at the SMED Center, which will start at about 9:00 a.m.
Relative to the event, Dr. Teogenes extols smokers that it’s never too late to quit. The sooner a smoker quits smoking, the better for him and to those people around him.
Smoking is very addictive and very hard to stop. But a smoker should realize that according to studies, smoking not only affects the people who inhales second-hand smoking, it also contributes significantly to diseases that shortens life and is the leading cause of death like heart attack, stroke, respiratory diseases which make smokers “pulmonary cripples” as in asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, recurrent infections, and cancer.
Meanwhile, second-hand smoking refers to the smoke exhaled by a smoker and inhaled by people around the smoker. It was learned that non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke are more at risk because the particles in the exhaled smoke are smaller and reach more deeply into the lungs of the passive smokers. The non-smoker exposed regularly to second-hand smoke is prone to specific health risks. (PIA-8) [top]
