Editorial - Heed that warning

For years tobacco companies tried to downplay the harmful effects of smoking. Despite warning labels on cigarette packs, Big Tobacco thrived. In many parts of Asia, people shrugged off initial studies linking smoking to cancer. A report said the Philippines has become the world’s 15th largest consumer of cigarettes, with about 73 percent of adults and an alarming 56 percent of children aged 7 to 17 smoking.

Now smokers may pay more heed. Addressing the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland last Friday, an official of a tobacco company admitted that smoking is addictive and causes life-threatening ailments including lung cancer and heart disease. Representatives from the WHO’s 191 member-countries are meeting in Geneva this week as part of efforts to forge an international treaty on tobacco control.

Big Tobacco’s main argument to forestall litigation worldwide over tobacco’s addictive properties is that while it may be tough to quit smoking, adults can do it with enough determination. But what about the children? Studies show that up to 20 percent of school children in developing countries are regular smokers, with about a fourth of them picking up the habit before age 10. In this country, the tobacco industry has committed not to sell cigarettes to minors, but any child can buy cigarettes from the neighborhood convenience store.

In the developed countries, where high literacy rates have made people more aware of the hazards of smoking, there are aggressive efforts to reduce tobacco consumption especially among the youth. Measures are also in place to protect non-smokers from equally hazardous secondhand smoke.

In poor countries, however, there’s an uphill battle to wean smokers from their favorite poison. In the Philippines, the Department of Health developed a mascot called "Yosi Kadiri" to deglamorize smoking, but it has been no match to Big Tobacco’s aggressive marketing. Some local councils have also passed ordinances banning smoking in public places, but the laws are rarely enforced, even in government offices. Only a few private firms ban smoking or provide special areas for smokers where they can do no harm to non-smokers. With the economic and health costs of smoking becoming clearer, the government must get together with the private sector to strictly implement measures that can save millions of lives.