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Friday, March 29, 2024

DoH steps up drive vs tobacco

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THE Department of Health took a step forward further in its campaign in reducing the prevalence of smoking in the country by launching a national television advertisement campaign that highlights the health and economic harms caused by smoking to families. 

The TV ad campaign was launched through a partnership with Vital Strategies at the DoH Media Relations Unit in Tayuman, Sta. Cruz, Manila. 

“In cooperation with our partners Vital Strategies, we are launching the multi-media campaign of ‘Mahalin ang Sarili at ang Pamilya, Paninigarilyo Itigil na [Protect Yourself and Family, Stop Smoking],” Health Secretary Dr. Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial said. 

She added that the anti-smoking campaign ad is the first of its kind “where our appeal is for the smokers to quit smoking.”

The commercial, which will air in the country’s national television networks, will be 15- and 30-seconder. It shows a father, sick with cancer and bedridden as a result of tobacco-causing illness, whose daughter has to quit her studies to help support the family. 

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Through the commercial, the family’s anguish can be felt by viewers as they watch the father’s physical pain and emotional guilt over the daughter’s loss of her happy, successful school days. 

With the commercial, the viewers can think deeply on the consequences of tobacco smoking as they watch how the daughter wonders why her father used tobacco and asked what “will happen to her and her future.”

“This will airs starting Sunday and will run for four weeks in the national television,” said Kaloi Garcia, communications manager of Vital Strategies.

He added that they make use of the TV ad campaign because it is proven worldwide that TV is the most effective channel.

Garcia said they will also use the social media platform to popularize the anti-smoking campaign.

According to DoH data, tobacco use in the country had been very high in the last few years but it showed a decline in 2015.

“From 29.5 percent in 2009, it was down to 23.8 percent among adults in 2015. This represents a 19.3 percent relative decline of the tobacco use prevalence in the country,” Secretary Ubial said.

According to her, it is estimated that almost 80,000 Filipinos die every year due to tobacco-related illnesses.

Worldwide, tobacco-related illnesses are killing nearly six million people each year. 

The Philippine Cancer Society estimates that some 3,000 non-smoking adult Filipinos die of lung cancer annually as a result of inhaling second-hand smoke.

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