Seventh-day Adventists in the Philippines have opened the first permanent “Breathe-Free” stop-smoking clinic. The facility, which will offer the popular Breathe-Free program developed by the Adventist world church, is located at the Central Philippines church headquarters building in Cebu City.

Dr. Allan Handysides, health ministries director for the Adventist Church, was in Cebu City for last month’s opening ceremony. “This facility represents a forward-looking approach on the part of the Adventist Church in the Philippines,” says Handysides. “As anti-tobacco restrictions tighten in the West, tobacco companies are stepping up their advertising in non-Western markets, and attempting to dump their product where there is least resistance. It’s no surprise then, that smoking rates are on the rise in Asia.”

The new Breathe-Free clinic will take nicotine-dependent patients referred by local doctors, leading them through a program designed to break the tobacco habit and set them on the path to better health practices.

The Adventist Church has long been a proponent of a tobacco-free lifestyle, warning against the dangers of smoking even before its risks became widely known. The church developed a number of stop-smoking programs that became the forerunners of those now used by governments and public health programs. The “Breathe-Free” program was developed more than 15 years ago and is now in use in more than 50 countries.