Greater protection for women against tobacco marketing sought

The celebration of World No Tobacco Day came as the debate began to heat up in the national media between the Department of Health (DoH) with the tobacco control advocates on one hand and the tobacco industry on the other. This was spurred by the DoH’s Administrative Order on mandatory printing of pictures in cigarette packs depicting the effects of smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products.

 According to the AO, one of the templates of graphic health information is a picture of a woman with breast cancer that will cater to prevent young women from getting into smoking addiction and convince women smokers to finally stop smoking.

 This breakthrough intervention provided an accurate backdrop of the theme of this year’s celebration, “Gender and tobacco with emphasis on marketing to women”. One of the highlights of the celebration is the Fun Run for Women that was organized by the Philippine tobacco control advocates and led by the DoH, the medical group Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP), and civil society groups Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), Ecowaste Coalition and WomanHealth Philippines.

 Women dominated the 800-strong RUN, coming from government employees, medical professionals, and mothers and young women from the urban poor communities. The event also brought in cyclists from the government agency Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the local government of Marikina City.

 The run kicked off to a start a little after six in the morning of May 30 along the Elliptical Road, one of the busiest streets in Quezon City and known as a venue of various health and fitness events. A short program followed the 2.5km run, in front of the Quezon City Hall grounds which is just across the Elliptical Road. The program was highlighted by speeches from the organizers and Marikina City Mayor Marides Fernando.(Joyce Sierra, Media Officer, FCAP)