Tobacco.org

No texting, no smoking while on duty, Metro Manila police chief tells his men  

METRO Manila Police Chief Director Leopoldo Bataoil on Sunday warned all police officers in the region to refrain from smoking and “texting” while on duty and maintain a wholesome image and a good role model to the public.

Bataoil said keeping police officers looking good at all times is one of the main focus of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for the year in order to make the law enforcers closer to the people.

Police community relation, Bataoil said, is one of the key measures in effective crime fighting as it provides the Philippine National Police vital information on criminal activities in their areas of concern.

“I am an advocate of police community relation and that is what I want for the NCRPO personnel wherein people would look at them in a very positive manner,” Bataoil said in the radio interview aired over dzBB.

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LPG tank blasts Pasig City home  

This father in Pasig City did not have a clue that lighting a cigarette inside his house would create a big bang.

Arturo Arevalo went home around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and lighted a cigarette as he usually does. But the unusual happened, the spark from his lighter created a loud explosion.

Arevalo later found out that his children and wife left their home 30 minutes earlier with a leaking cooking gas tank.

"The leaked gas got trapped and when he lighted his cigarette, fire exploded," said Police Officer 3 Andrew Mendez of the Pasig City police's Explosive and Ordnance Division.

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DOH campaigns vs tobacco use  

The Department of Health (DOH) is starting to include anti-tobacco use advocacy in its illness eradication campaign.

"We are targeting not just tobacco control but tobacco use eradication; not just polio but we are going to eradicate tobacco use," DOH Assistant Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said during the recently held DOH XI Sentrong Sigla awarding ceremony.

She revealed the campaign is an offshoot of the national health sector meeting among DOH and local government unit officials held in Baguio City from November 26 to November 27 this year.

She said DOH has "concluded that tobacco be classified as a dangerous drug so that it would no longer be as accessible as it is now."

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EDITORIAL: Picking up the habit  

Despite the education campaign against smoking, a recently released study showed that young Filipinos continue to pick up the habit. In a survey commissioned by the World Heath Organization and the Health Department, an increase of five percent of young smokers in a span of two years was observed.

In the survey, young smokers, aged between 11 to 19, made up the 23 percent of the total Filipino smokers. This number was only 18 percent in 2005. . . .

While it is true that we should stop our children from starting to smoke, parents who are smoking should first stop the habit. Children of parents who smoke will most likely pick up the habit because the cigarette is easily within reach and the parent can’t detect the smell of cigarette on their kids. Besides, the parents can’t claim a moral high ground here.

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Corn farmers shifting back to tobacco 

Many corn planters in Northern Luzon are beginning to shift back to tobacco farming, especially after the price of the staple in the world market has dropped to record lows.

"Prices of locally grown yellow corn have plunged, and we have no recourse but to plant again tobacco which prices are more stable," said Victor Vallevor of Barangay Laping, San Juan, Ilocos Sur. "If prices of maize continue to go down, our families will starve." . . .

San Juan Mayor Benjamin Sarmiento said the local government is now assisting farmers who were affected by the slide in the prices of corn. "We have set aside some funds for farmers who want to plant tobacco," he said, adding that a team of agronomists is now in the field showing farmers how to produce quality crops.

Farmers are beginning to restore their curing barns in time for the tobacco harvest next season. . . .

Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI) managing director Chris Nelson said the farmers' decision to return to tobacco growing reinforces confidence that the future of the tobacco industry in the country is bright.

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Female teen smokers in the Philippines on the rise  

Female smokers in the country are getting younger according to a study made by a tobacco control group.

Five out of ten girls 15-years-old and below, said that cigarette companies encourage other girls their age to smoke.

The South East Asian Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) said that three out of 10 female smokers belong to the 13 to 15 age group. Among female smokers, 60.4% said that they started smoking at 18-years-old while 39.6% said that they started smoking at 17-years-old and below.

In the 13 to 15 age group, five out of ten girls believed that cigarette companies encourage other girls their age to smoke. About 79% said that they noticed advertising of tobacco products in stores and shops.

"The study clearly shows that tobacco companies are enticing the youths to take on smoking," said Maricar B. Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) in a statement.

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• When Smoke Gets into Your Lungs 

Women from media and leaders in the campaign against smoking gathered for a three-day seminar to address the growing number of women and girls in the Philippines who smoke.

The health risks in tobacco, according to her, come from the over 4,000 chemical compounds found in a single tobacco stick, half of which are found naturally in tobacco leaf, while the other half are created by chemical reactions when the tobacco is burned. The smoke that gets into your lungs and in your eyes (as one popular song goes) brings in about “43 cancer-causing agents that can damage a person’s health,” according to Dr. Blanco-Limpin.

Knowing this, one can only cringe at the memory of all those movies that made smoking seem glamorous, spawning a generation of avid smokers and the cancer-causing toxins they spewed at the legion of unwitting nonsmokers. . . .

In her presentation, Atty. Josephine Buenaseda pointed out that the global tobacco industry is comprised of three major transnational corporations: Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Inc., whose combined revenues ring up to more than $147 billion. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the three major players in cigarette manufacturing are Fortune Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris International and La Suerte. They have a combined market share of 99 percent. . . .

If there was one speaker at the gathering who summarized the pain and ill effects of smoking, it was Boots Anson-Roa, whose husband Pete died of lung cancer. Unknown to many, it was not just her husband whom she lost in this battle but both her parents, as well. And, as one well-known columnist/participant succinctly said during the seminar, “In this country, it is easier to ban nuclear weapons than smoking.”

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Female smokers getting younger and younger - study  

Three out of 10 women aged 13 to 15 are already smokers, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance-Philippines said Thursday.

Dr. Maricar Limpin, the group's executive director, said this was based on a study conducted by Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

The same study indicated that 18.7 percent of young women in the 13 to 25 age brackets are smokers.

Limpin noted that 10 years ago, the youngest female smokers were aged 15 to 17 according a survey made by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.

Limpin said five of 10 smokers in the 13-15 age bracket believed that tobacco companies encouraged them to smoke.

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Your 13-year-old girl may be smoking, survey shows  

Cigarette firms' "replacement smokers" now include girls as young as 13 years old.

The latest Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) survey shows that 18.7 percent of Filipino females in the 13 to 25 age groups are smokers and three out of 10 of the female smokers are between the ages of 13 and 15.

Sixty percent of the smoking Filipina youths interviewed by SEATCA said they started puffing cigarettes at 18 years old and the rest started at 17.

"The study clearly shows that tobacco companies are enticing youths to take on smoking. In the marketing parlance, the youths are called replacement smokers," Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP).

Limpin said cigarette firms' recent advertisement and marketing tactics, including giving away freebies, usually target the youth.

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Women smokers getting younger 

Female Filipino smokers are getting younger, a health expert said yesterday, citing a study showing three out of 10 women who light up belong to the 13-15 age group.

Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance-Philippines, said that based on a study of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), Filipino women smokers are "getting younger."

"In 1998, a study of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute showed the youngest smokers were in the 15-17 age bracket. Now, in the SEATCA study, it's in 13-15 already," she told The STAR.

Citing the study, Limpin said five out of 10 smokers in the 13-15 age bracket "believed that tobacco companies encourage (females) their age to smoke."

The study showed 18.7 percent of young women in the 13 to 25 age brackets are smokers.

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• Law allows women to force partners to quit smoking  

In extreme situations, if the partners refuse to stop the habit, the law provides a legal remedy that would threaten the partners with imprisonment of up to 12 years.

Department of Social Welfare and Development Dulfie Shalim admitted that smoking is the least explored among other forms of violence against women. "Often, domestic violence is attributed to excessive drinking or substance abuse, smoking hardly comes up as a factor in cases of violence against women," she said.

The problem is women have been very tolerant

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Pinoy women smokers increasing 

Health experts have expressed alarm over the increasing number of Filipino women smokers as a result of the tobacco firms' strategy to make smoking look "glamorous and fashionable."

Dr. Domilyn Villarreiz, consultant of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, said cigarette consumption in developed countries, like the United States, has dropped due to information campaigns on the dangers of tobacco consumption.

"Because of that, they are now looking at developing nations, including the Philippines, to sell their products. Their targets are the youth and women," Villarreiz noted during "Glamour, Smoke and Tobacco," a seminar on women, media and tobacco held recently in Davao City.

The seminar was organized by the Women's Media Circle Foundation Inc. to inform women on the dangers of cigarette smoking.

A survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology in 2003 showed that 12 to 20 percent of Filipino women and 50 to 60 percent of men were cigarette smokers.

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Lapu to ban smoking near firecracker zones 

FROM Dec. 15 to 31, the stretch of M.L Quezon Highway from the point of Barangay Canjulao to Barangay Babag, Lapu-Lapu City will be a no-smoking zone.

Policemen and personnel from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) will regularly patrol the area to prevent accidents.

The City Council declared the stretch a firecracker zone to give local manufacturers an edge over distributors of imported products mostly from China and to promote their products, which have been Lapu-Lapu City’s pride.

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STUDY SAYS Women smokers in RP getting younger 

Women smokers in the country are getting younger, a recent study has found, with three out of 10 female Filipino smokers in their early teens.

The study conducted by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance showed that 18.7 percent of young Filipino females between the ages of 13 and 25 smoked cigarettes.

"What was more alarming was that three out of 10 Filipina smokers were 13 to 15 years old," said Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), which released the findings on Thursday.

The study showed that 60 percent of Filipino women smokers started smoking at 18, with the rest saying they took their first puff when they were much younger.

"The study clearly shows that tobacco companies are enticing the youth to take up smoking," said Limpin, who is a lung doctor.

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Philippines may miss out on aid for tobacco farmers ($$) 

THE PHILIPPINES may be given least priority status for foreign aid for displaced tobacco farmers if the country fails to implement graphic health warnings on cigarette labels.

In a statement released to the press, the Framework Alliance on Tobacco Control-Philippines (FATC) said while it cites the Philippines' accession in the 160-nation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Manila is still wanting in passing graphic health warning bills that have yet to be approved at the committee level in both Houses of Congress.

FATC Executive Director Maricar B. Limpin told BusinessWorld the Framework Convention Alliance is crafting guidelines on giving aid to member countries "and one of the possible guidelines is to give least priority to noncompliant countries, which includes the Philippines."

The Philippines missed the Sept. 4 deadline to have a law on health warnings in tobacco labels.

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