The Seventh-day Adventist Church will take part in celebrating World No Tobacco Day May 31. WNTD, a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, is designed to call attention to the impact of tobacco use on public health.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church will take part in celebrating World No Tobacco Day May 31. WNTD, a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, is designed to call attention to the impact of tobacco use on public health.
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency, the humanitarian arm of the Adventist Church, is encouraging Adventist churches to partner with them to promote anti-tobacco programs.
ADRA currently has several programs to combat tobacco around the world. Last month, the manager of ADRA Mongolia’s Tobacco-Free Youth project addressed members of the Mongolian Parliament on the dangers of tobacco. ADRA Mongolia’s program focuses on smoking cessation, doctor education, and lobbying for stricter tobacco control laws.
In Cambodia, ADRA is the first and only non-governmental organization to initiate smoking cessation programs. In 2001, ADRA Cambodia helped more than 3,500 people understand the negative effects of tobacco.
ADRA Morocco’s tobacco education programs focus on students between ages eight and 12 years old, the ages smokers most often report their first use of tobacco. The program uses puppets to present the impact of tobacco and provides teacher packets with additional activities. During 2001, ADRA Morocco’s five-day plan to stop smoking was featured on Moroccan television and national radio.
Every year tobacco kills some 3.5 million people, say ADRA health officials, quoting WHO statistics. In other words, some 10,000 people around the world die from tobacco every day. The WHO estimates that 1 million of these deaths currently occur in developing countries. In many of these countries, cigarettes are often sold for less than they are in Britain and North America, possibly encouraging more consumption of tobacco. There is also less of a public stigma to tobacco use in some places, with restaurants, bars and cafés often permitting smoking on their premises.
The International Commission for the Prevention of Addiction—an organization sponsored by the Adventist Church—also will be involved in anti-tobacco awareness campaigns through its many national branches. In the Philippines, for example, more than 600 signatures were collected in support of anti tobacco legislation by Adventist membership.
Through its Breathe Free program the church helps thousands to stop the use of tobacco. Recent collaborative efforts with the Tobacco Free Kids organization have involved the church in anti-tobacco programs.
Also, Harley Stanton was seconded from the church’s South Pacific region to work for the WHO in the Philippines. He has been active in establishing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
For more information on ADRA’s anti-tobacco efforts, visit their Web site, www.adra.org.
