"WHO is then more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah or gives the lie to His messages? Surely the guilty never succeed." - Qur'an 10:17,
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We belong to a family of smokers. My two uncles passed away due to illness which lifestyle habits were mainly the cause: smoking.
My father was a bit lucky, had he not stopped and became religious he could have gone the afterlife first, since he's the eldest. But not without consequences, too, he has to deal with recurring coughs caused by sever asthma.
On May 31, it would be World Tobacco Day, an event to observe not only to cease smoking (at least for a day), but reflect on how did cigarette or tobacco smoking turned the world around.
I would be a hypocrite to say I didn't smoke or stopped smoking, though I'm doing it in moderation especially when there's one around. But think of these figures. Usually, these surveys are done in every three to four years.
In the 2015 report from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), the Filipino adult’s tobacco use prevalence significantly decreased among adults from 29.7 percent in 2009 to 23.8 percent in 2015. This means that there was a 19.9 percent relative decline in tobacco use prevalence.
“The prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults significantly decreased from 27.9 percent in 2009 to 22.5 percent in 2015,” the report said.
However, despite the decrease in tobacco use prevalence, the Philippines is still second, next to Indonesia, with most number of adult smokers. This, according to the November 2016 report from the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).
Based on its third quarter report, there are 122,420,858 adult tobacco or cigarette smokers within the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) region. While Indonesia topped at 55.3 percent, the Philippines followed with 13.5 percent, and succeeded by Vietnam at 12.7 percent. This means that there are around 16.5 million adult Filipinos who are smokers.
There may be a silver lining for decline but the fact remains the youths are still involved.
The 2015 Philippines Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), a component of the Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS) surveyed a total of 8,789 students throughout the country, who were all students belonging to grades 7 to 10. A total of 5,885 were aged 13 to 15 years (Male: 2,564, Female: 3,321).
Of these numbers, GYTS found out that 79.4 percent of students who smoke cigarettes bought these items from a store, shop, street vendors, or kiosks, and 47.5 percent of were not prevented from buying cigarettes, despite smoking laws that ban minors from buying.
In addition, around 10.9 percent reported that the student-respondents’ usual smoking place was in school, with 35.9 percents admitted that they had showed signs of smoking dependence.
Meanwhile, in an identical but separate survey administered by the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) of the same year, part of its results showed that males (18.4 percent) were more likely to use any tobacco product than females (11 percent), and the males (15.8 percent) were almost twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as females (8.6 percent).
“Among the students who currently smoked cigarettes, almost 9 out of 10 (88 percent) tried to quit smoking. The same proportion was reported for both males and females (88.2 percent),” the report said.
The bigger figures of this survey showed that one in every two high school students aged 13–15 was exposed to cigarette smoke. More than half (50.8 percent) of the students reported that people smoked in their presence in the past seven days before the survey was conducted in 2015. Again, the males (53.9 percent) were more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke than females (47.9 percent).
GSHS was a collaborative surveillance project designed to help countries measure and assess the behavioral risk factors and protective factors in 10 key areas among young people aged 13–15 years old, it surveyed around 8,761 students, out of the desired 10,361 sample size throughout the country. Both GYTS and GSHS are conducted every three to four years.
The reports mentioned more information about smoking behaviors, people involved and even campaign on smoking regulations.
The recent Executive Order 26 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte, banning smoking in public spaces, is just an addition to the throng of laws and local ordinances in local government units that has created it.
But these laws, whether actively enforced or not, would still remain a baby tooth making large tobacco producers entertained.
Why not totally ban these tobacco companies right? But then, they are a major source for tax collections. And in a time of Train law and Build Build Build, it remains a status quo.
(Nefluczon@gmail.com)