NAKHON SI THAMMARAT – Children and youth networks as well as local residents in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province led by the Walailak University Student Council compiled 145,959 signatures to support the revised Tobacco Control Bill in order to ensure the Thai society is protected from the danger of smoking.
President of Walailak University Student Council Wikran Tuayabutr said that tobacco products are serious threats to health of smokers and bystanders. Each year, 50,000 Thais die from smoking-related diseases while many others are sick because of it. The problem causes a great loss and burden to the government in handling health care for active smokers and those affected by passive smoking. This has harmed the whole economy, worth hundreds of thousands of baht per year.
According to a survey by Walailak University, 7 in 10 juveniles who began smoking when they were young tend to become victims of lifelong smoking. The current Tobacco Control Act has been used for twenty years and become outdated to handle such new strategies as propaganda advertisement to motivate young new smokers by transnational giants in the tobacco industry. Each year they earn three billion baht from sale of tobacco to juveniles.
Nakhon Si Thammarat-based networks thus called for an amendment of the current Act as it is needed to deal with wiser and more implicit marketing strategies of tobacco industry.
Wikran added that the amendment bill proposed by the Public Health Ministry designates stronger measures to make it harder for young people to access smoking. The measures are for example, age limit, limited places of sale, advertisement control and heavier penalties to offenders.
The cabinet has approved the new Tobacco Control Bill and is pushing forward its enforcement through the legislative procedure, hoping it to be a gift for children and youth on the occasion of “World No Tobacco Day 2015 which was observed on 31 May.
