Learn from Thai smoking campaign

Thailand seems to be way ahead of the Philippines when it comes to persuading its people to stop smoking. That country was able to pass a sin tax law on tobacco 20 years ahead of us—and proved that tax collection from tobacco use could be vastly increased, enough to build a rail transport system, among other projects; and that the number of cigarette smokers could be reduced without decreasing the sales volume of existing cigarette manufacturing companies.

More recently, Thailand scored another first: a video that has proven effective in decreasing the number of persistent adult smokers. The video appeals to the adult smokers’ concern for children who could pick up the cancer-, stroke-, heart attack-, and emphysema-causing habit at such a young age: https://www.upworthy.com/i-can-see-why-this-has-been-called-the-best-anti-smoking-ad-ever?c=pm1

The World Health Organization in 2011 estimated an annual loss of six million lives due to the use of tobacco, including 600,000 dying from second-hand smoke. The number is expected to go up to a total of eight million by the year 2030. The scale of grief of family members and of the long-drawn-out misery of the victims before they die in such pain—some of them expire screaming to be killed in order to be put out of their suffering—is inconceivable. And the loss of productive lives and countless man-hours, plus the heavy burden of national healthcare costs, makes it increasingly imperative for countries all over the world to reduce addiction to tobacco products and to the newly contrived but harmful “smokeless” devices that are marketed in flavors powerfully appealing to children, such as cherry, strawberry, and cookies and cream.

The video has proven to be effective in other countries that have adopted it for TV broadcasting. Health Secretary Enrique Ona should adopt the Thai video, as well, for broadcasting on our local TV channels. At the same time, he should work on persuading our legislature to pass a law requiring large graphic colored images of the effects of smoking printed on cigarette packs, which is another measure already proven to be effective in Canada, Uruguay, and other countries in reducing the number of tobacco addicts. Such a law, however, might take a year or two to pass through the legislative mill.

—BENJAMIN AGUNOD,

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