Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

Support World No Tobacco Day – say “no” to tobacco

To support the World No Tobacco Day 2017, the Department of Health (DH) today (May 31) held a sharing session to remind the public again of the hazards of smoking and to urge smokers to quit smoking as early as possible.

http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201705/31/P2017053100249.htm

Speaking at the sharing session, the Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan, said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has marked May 31 as World No Tobacco Day annually. The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2017 is “Tobacco – a threat to development”, with the aim of demonstrating the threats posed by tobacco to the world’s sustainable development, including public health and the economy. Dr Chan strongly urged members of the public to say “no” to tobacco and to continue supporting the Government’s efforts in tobacco control.

“With the collaborative efforts of the Government and various sectors over the years, the work on tobacco control in Hong Kong has attained pleasing results, with a drop in overall smoking prevalence from 23.3 per cent in the 1980s to 10.5 per cent in 2015. Nonetheless, casualties and economic loss directly and indirectly caused by tobacco remain tremendous. Local studies revealed that tobacco-related fatalities reach nearly 7 000 people annually and the economic loss resulting from tobacco-related health problems is estimated to be about 5.5 billion every year,” Dr Chan said.

“Smoking is a causative agent of many cancers as well as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Smoking causes harm not only to the smoker but also to their family members and friends due to the secondhand smoke induced, which increases their risk of cancer and many other chronic diseases as well as the chance of children developing respiratory symptoms,” Dr Chan added.

Sharing the research findings on local smoking-related mortality and morbidity conducted by the University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Chair Professor of the School of Public Health of the HKU, Professor Lam Tai-hing, pointed out that at least one out of every two elderly smokers died of tobacco-related diseases. He said that the Government must continue to adopt various tobacco control measures to encourage smokers to quit the habit.

The Head of the Tobacco Control Office of the DH, Dr Lee Pui-man, introduced in the sharing session 12 new pictorial health warnings on cigarette packets, which better inform the public about the specific hazards of tobacco use to smokers and their families. Experience and evidence from the WHO and around the globe also demonstrate that pictorial health warnings are an effective intervention, and increasing the size of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packets is now an international trend.

“The graphics and designs of health warnings should be updated regularly so as to maintain their salience and enhance the impact. The Government updates pictorial health warnings coupled with multiple tobacco control measures to discourage members of the public from smoking and encourage smokers to quit,” Dr Lee said.

Smokers who intend to quit smoking can call the DH’s Integrated Smoking Cessation Hotline on 1833 183, where registered nurses provide professional counselling services on smoking cessation and will also refer service users to suitable social service agencies for follow-up when necessary. To enhance smoking cessation services to smokers, the DH will launch a pilot public-private partnership programme this year to trial a new mode of smoking cessation service supported by family physicians.

In addition, the DH will collaborate with a renowned medical institution, Mayo Clinic, in the United States to organise an online training programme on tobacco dependence treatment, which will be rolled out within this year. Family physicians joining the programme will acquire skills and knowledge on smoking cessation via e-learning, and their capacity in providing smoking cessation services will be further enhanced through training and assessment. The programme aims to ensure that they can provide quitters with effective evidence-based treatment.

In addition, two patient representatives shared their experience of smoking at the sharing session, ranging from smoking-related diseases to successfully quitting the habit. They urged other smokers to quit smoking as early as possible and to seek help on smoking cessation if necessary.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>