Health chief urges graphic warnings on cigarette packages
By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:50:00 09/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Every six minutes, a Filipino dies of a smoking-related illness and the Department of Health believes passing the bill which seeks to use graphic-based health warnings on cigarette packs could help solve the problem.
In a statement on Saturday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III appealed for the passage of House Bill No. 3364 or the Graphic Health Warning Bill in Congress as the World Health Organization also warned that more efforts were needed to combat smoking which is estimated to kill a billion people this century.
“The DoH hopes that the bill would be passed against all odds. We fully support the bill in its entirety,” Duque said.
In a separate statement, the WHO also warned that 80 percent of the one billion people are estimated to die because of smoking in developing countries.
It noted that the Philippines was among the countries with “the greatest number of smokers, the highest rates of male smoking prevalence, and the fastest increase of tobacco uptake by women and young people.”
The WHO also said that smoking does not only jeopardize human health, but that of the economy as well in terms of health care.
Duque said that the country spends more than P280 billion every year to treat people with smoking-related diseases.
“Tobacco use disproportionately hurts the poor and deepens poverty by siphoning off money needed for basic necessities such as food, shelter, and education and killing wage earners in the prime of their lives,” Dr Shigeru Omi, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, said in a statement.
Citing 2003 WHO figures, the DoH said the Philippines ranked fifth in the world with the highest number of adult male smokers and 26th among countries with the biggest number of female adult smokers.
The country also ranked second and fourth among countries with the highest number of girls and boys who smoke.
The DoH reminded legislators that the country has ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that seeks to reduce cigarette consumption.
The convention has been signed by 160 countries and calls for, among other measures, appropriate packaging and labeling of tobacco products.
Duque said researches have shown that a graphic health warning on cigarette packs “is one of the best measures to prevent people from nicotine addiction.”
One of the few countries which implement graphic health warnings is Singapore, where gory images of people suffering from smoking-related illnesses are shown on the packs.
Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla also said the country has ratified international covenants on rights of women and children, whose rights are affected “through second-hand smoke, targeted marketing, child labor, green tobacco sickness, and diverting family income needed for food and education to satisfy an addiction for nicotine.”
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