.. Gawing 20 pesos per stick ang Yosi

Pabata ng pabata ang mga naninigarilyo ngayon. Hindi alintana ang masamang epekto nito. Ang paninigarilyo ay nakakasira ng kalusugan at buhay ng tao, kung mahal mo ang sarili mo at pamilya mo, itigil ang paninigarilyo. Kaya naman kung gagawing 20 pesos per stick, kahit papaano ay mababawasan din siguro bilang ng mga smokers.

MANILA -- Studies show that smoking or tobacco use remains to be the biggest preventable cause of death, disabilities and diseases across nations. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 7 million deaths due to tobacco use worldwide annually. About 260,000 of these cases are child deaths caused by inhalation of secondhand smoke.

 

Apart from child deaths due to secondhand smoke, the increasing rate of teenagers using tobacco has increased alarmingly especially in third world countries, such as the Philippines.

 

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS ) said there had been 3.1-percent increase in school children aged 13 to 15 years old who smoke from 2011 to 2015 nationwide. Most of these children are boys.

 

GYTS is a school-based survey which enables countries to monitor tobacco use among youth and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control programs.

 

Smoking out of curiosity

 

Thirty-year-old Robbie told Philippine News Agency (PNA) that he started smoking when he entered high school at an all-boys school out of curiosity and peer pressure.

 

“I started smoking since I was 13. Pero, naging regular ‘yung paninigarilyo ko nung college. So roughly, mga 13 years na (But I started smoking regularly when I was in college. So roughly it’s 13 years already),” he said. 

 

He consumes 10 sticks per day, or two to three packs per week.

 

Robbie’s case is just one of the increasing number of smokers who has started smoking as minors.

 

Ralph Degollacion, Health Justice project manager, said this is a dangerous national problem as more and more Filipino youth could get sick and die prematurely due to tobacco use.

 

“We had a recent survey with the National Youth Commission in 2017. We found that 31.92 percent of Filipino minors smoke tobacco products. This means a nearly nine out of 10 of all smokers start smoking as minors and 98 percent first tried smoking by age 26,” he told reporters in an interview on Monday.

 

Higher tobacco tax, lesser youth smokers

 

Degollacion stressed that there is a need for an aggressive measure that will push them to stop smoking –a higher excise tax on tobacco.

 

“About 54 percent of the youth in our study expressed that they might be encouraged to quit if the price of each stick of cigarette is raised to PHP20.00, take note the term is encouraged only,” he said.

 

With the changes in the education program, Degollacion explained that the purchasing power of the youth today have changed as many of them have already acquired skills which make them employable in certain industries.

 

“Aside from the allowance, they have basic income. This means they have more dispensable income they could spend on whatever they want. Still the youth continue to patronize tobacco kahit tumaas ang presyo (even if the price increases),” he said.

 

Spending PHP500 to PHP1,000 monthly, Robbie told PNA that he does not have any plans of quitting smoking at the moment.

 

“Kung bente per stick, depende siguro, pero baka maghanap ng ibang alternative like vaping kung talagang hindi na kaya ng budget (If PHP20 per stick, it depends maybe, but I might look for an alternative like vaping  if my budget can afford it anymore),” he said. 

 

Degollacion added  the ‘tingi’ (retail) culture, or system the sari-sari stores nationwide practiced in, also contributes to the accessibility of cigarettes to the youth.      

Photo by:google

Info:www.pna.gov.ph

Written:Maria Isabel Macaraeg