Health office stresses tobacco ills in campaign

LILY Bimuyag, Center for Health Development-Cordillera Administrative Region Tobacco Program coordinator, stressed the agency remains steadfast on its campaign to protect the world from the harms brought about by tobacco use. “We need not to entertain the interferences of the tobacco industry,” she said explaining why this year’s World No Tobacco theme is “Tobacco Industry Interference”.

 Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos. This campaign spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) aims to educate the people not to entertain any distractions created by the tobacco industry from the strategies WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is making to protect the world from the dangers of tobacco. It also aims to inform all people, especially lawmakers, about the tactics of the tobacco industry and to expose to them what the tobacco industry has been doing to prevent the people from not patronizing their products.

 On the other hand, Bimuyag said as a part of the World No Tobacco Day celebration activities, the Department of Health (DOH) will be choosing this year’s Red Orchid awardee. Bimuyag said this year, eight nominees are from the Cordillera Administrative Region and one of them is a local government unit in Sablan. In choosing the Red Orchid awardee, the nominees are carefully evaluated based on their strengths and efforts in implementing 100 percent tobacco-free environments in their respective cities or provinces. Last year, the Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital of the Cordillera Administrative Region was one of the Red Orchid awardees under the category of government hospitals.