Dumaguete City observe World No Tobacco Month celebration

This year’s culmination of World No Tobacco Month and Blue Ribbon Awarding ceremony will take place on June 29 with a street parade in Dumaguete City. The activity banners the theme, “Stop Tobacco Industry Interference,” based in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3 The following concerned agencies Negros Oriental Tobacco Control and Smoke Free Advocates Alliance (NegOrTocSa), Department of Health Center for Health Development-Central Visayas, Negros Oriental Integrated Provincial Health, and city government of Dumaguete are spearheading the said event.

 According to Dumaguete City Administrator William Ablong, the activity will be highlighted with a city street parade at 2 p.m. on Friday, from the Rizal Boulevard as the starting point and it will end up at the Freedom Park at Capitol Ground to be followed by a program and live band concert.

Joining the parade, Ablong said, will be contingents from the cities and municipalities with smoke-free ordinance, health officials, students, city and provincial officials. Assistant Secretary Dr. Enrique Tayag of DOH will be the keynote speaker and Dr. Lashmin Legaspi, DOH Assistant Regional Director, will give the rationale of the World No Tobacco Month Celebration, while Dumaguete Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria and Governor Roel Degamo will also give their messages. According to World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death.

The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless we act, it will kill up to eight million people by 2030, of which more than 80 percent will come from low- and middle-income countries, he said.

World No Tobacco Month celebrations will educate policy-makers and the general public about the tobacco industry's nefarious and harmful tactics and WHO will urge countries to put the fight against tobacco industry interference at the heart of their efforts to control the global tobacco epidemic. Blue Ribbon Campaign Awarding of Recognition, also be given for those cities and municipalities whose effort continues for the implementation of the smoke free ordinance and to be followed by the live band concert to culminates the program.