Rally in response to World No Tobacco Day

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and other ministries and sectors walked and called on people to join hands in responding to World No Tobacco Day.

This morning (May 31), at Hanoi Opera House Square, the Vietnam Women's Union in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund organized a rally with the theme "Women whose relatives do not smoke - For a smoke-free environment" in response to World No Tobacco Day May 31 and National No Tobacco Week May 25-31, 2015.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, leaders of central ministries and agencies, Hanoi, and a large number of officials, members of the Hanoi Women's Union, and students in Hanoi attended and responded to the program.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, President of the Vietnam Women's Union, said: With 15 million cigarette and tobacco smokers, Vietnam is among the top 15 countries with the highest number of tobacco users in the world and 3rd in the ASEAN region.

For passive smokers, the rate of exposure to cigarette smoke at home is 67% and at work is 49%. In particular, the rate of exposure to cigarette smoke at home for women is nearly 70% and for children is 50%.

Thus, the number of passive smokers in our country is very high and mainly women and children.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest rate of adult male smokers in the world, with 16 million smokers. It is estimated that Vietnamese people spend up to 22,000 billion VND on cigarettes each year.

Tobacco-related diseases are the leading cause of more than 40,000 deaths in Vietnam each year, equivalent to about 100 deaths per day.

According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien: After 10 years of participating in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, people's awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco has been raised, 95% of adults believe that smoking causes disease, 87% of adults believe that passive smoking also causes the same diseases as smokers. The smoking rate among men has decreased by 9%.

Along with that, the Law on Prevention of Tobacco Harms passed by the National Assembly on June 18, 2012 marked a major turning point in the work of preventing tobacco harms in Vietnam. Tobacco harm prevention activities are increasingly promoted in provinces/cities.

Up to now, 12/22 ministries, branches, political and social organizations, 40/63 provinces and cities have established a Steering Committee on tobacco harm prevention. However, according to the Minister of Health, although we have the Law on Tobacco Harm Prevention, the work of preventing harm still has many difficulties such as: The smoking rate among men is still very high, awareness of compliance with the ban on smoking is still limited, advertising and direct marketing of products are still common.

To contribute to reducing the rate of tobacco users among Vietnamese people, in the coming time, the Minister of Health proposed: “The Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union should continue to promote communication work on the harmful effects of tobacco, continue to propagate the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harm to raise people's awareness in complying with the Law. I also propose that Ministries, Branches, and People's Committees of provinces and cities continue to direct the strict implementation of the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harm; include the content of prevention and control of tobacco harm in the annual work plan, include the regulation on banning smoking in the workplace in the internal regulations of agencies and units; Strengthen the inspection and examination of compliance with the regulation on banning smoking in public places according to the provisions of the Law”.

Responding to World No Tobacco Day, at the Opera House Square, 500 students from Hanoi Medical University joined together to form the "No Smoking" symbol to show their determination not to smoke and together encourage their relatives and friends not to smoke.

Tran Van Tien, a fourth-year student at Hanoi Medical University, said: “I have never smoked, and will never smoke. By participating in the program, I want to send a message to young people, the future owners of the country: “Vietnamese youth, please say no to cigarettes.”

At the rally, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam called on everyone, regardless of gender, whether women, men, middle-aged or young, to raise their sense of responsibility towards themselves and the community, and join hands to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco on the environment and health.

Next, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and representatives of leaders of ministries, departments, agencies, unions, officials, members of the Women's Union, and students of the University of Medicine walked together through Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi to call on people to join hands in responding to World No Tobacco Day./.

According to VOV.VN