Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Editorial: Barking up the wrong tree
THE World Health Organization (WHO) reports that tobacco addiction causes about five million deaths a year worldwide from cancer of the lungs, vesicle, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat and chronic pulmonary diseases, emphysema, bronchitis, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. It adds that the number of deaths will double by the year 2020.
WHO also reports that cigarettes contain 4,000 poisonous chemicals, like carbon monoxide, hydrogen, cyanide, ammonia, arsenic, napthalene and butane, among others. In short, all tobacco products are harmful and addictive.
According to the latest government statistics, 32 million Filipinos have acquired the vice of smoking. That's about 40 percent of the country's entire population. In 2005, 15,000 Filipinos died of tobacco-related diseases.
Every year around the world, thousands of people die in incidents involving motor vehicles and gunshot wounds. Many others die in airplane crashes and maritime accidents. But despite all these deaths and injuries, governments around the world have not banned the manufacture, distribution and sale of tobacco products, motor vehicles, aircraft, marine vessels and guns.
Which brings us closer to home. In Davao City some members of the City Council want to ban aerial spraying in agricultural plantations, alleging that many residents living near these plantations have complained that this method of pest control has proven hazardous to their health. Such claim remains unsubstantiated, however. Not one death due to aerial spraying has been reported. Not one.
Perhaps, our noisy homegrown militants who have been frantically urging (even insulting) members of the City Council to ban aerial spraying should also turn their attention to the inherent danger posed by motor vehicles and their wayward drivers and have them banned from our streets. After all, they have caused death and injury to many people for as long as one can remember.
But, aerial spraying? Where are the victims?
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (October 10, 2006 issue)
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