World health depends  on cooperation

The draft guidelines for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) convention to control tobacco is expected to advance the worldwide campaign against smoking by leaps and bounds. Under the guidelines, explicit warnings on each pack of cigarette will include not only words of warning, but pictures showing damaged and discolored lungs, cancerous flesh and other vivid pictures showing the destructive effects of smoking. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III proudly reports that the Philippines will host this landmark event, which will be attended by key officials from 33 countries all over the world. A recent bill was already filed by Sen. Pia Cayetano, pushing stricter labeling requirements on cigarette packs.

Few people know that fascist leader Adolf Hitler, so hated for the atrocities he committed against the Jews, was a staunch advocate against smoking. If he possessed any good virtue, it was his belief that tobacco destroys the body. Historians however, believed he used the campaign as a political scheme to control the minds of his subjects, on whom he stressed the virtues of racial hygiene and bodily purity. He had effectively curtailed man’s basic freedom in the process, but this was not immediately evident in his anti-smoking sorties. An old magazine reports that “the Fuhrer thinks that every German is responsible to the whole people for all his deeds and omissions, and does not have the right to damage his body with drugs.” Because of this, the Nazis greatly restricted tobacco advertising, banned smoking in most public buildings, restricted and regulated the cultivation of tobacco and engaged in an all-out war against smoking. Abstinence from tobacco was considered a “national socialist duty.” Hitler was known to have given gold watches to associates who quit the habit. His anti-smoking campaign was so effective that smoking was banned from government offices, universities, restaurants and bars, hospitals, offices and most public places. Tobacco taxes were raised, unsupervised cigarette vending machines were banned and smoking was prohibited while driving. This became known to be the world’s strongest anti-smoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, and the world’s most refined tobacco epidemiology, linking tobacco use with the already evident epidemic of lung cancer.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death globally, causing more than five million deaths a year. A concern that must be addressed more urgently is the public exposure to second-hand smoke. WHO estimates that 200,000 workers die each year due to exposure to smoke at work and around 700 million children, or almost half of the world’s children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home. In the Philippines, we commend the efforts of Mayor Belmonte of Quezon City and Mayor Duterte of Davao City in successfully banning smoking in public places. We hope that other city officials will follow suit for the sake of their constituents. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan has warned that only 100% smoke-free environments can adequately protect from dangers of second-hand smoke.

Those who smoke may say they have the freedom to do so, but they should realize that freedom comes with responsibility. Soviet novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn states “the salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all,” and this includes, may I say the health and well being of people around us, especially now that we exist in a global village.