Tobacco smoking is a part and parcel of the society now. We do not blink an eye if a person whips out a cigarette and light up, regardless of time and place. How did we ever come to this?
It is well known that tobacco smoking causes a plethora of diseases, not only to smokers themselves, but to the people surrounding them. Yet number of smokers are rising and deaths due to tobacco smoking is said to be 10,000 each year. Now is the time to reverse this numbers.
The Malaysian Medical Gazette, together with the Nicotine Addiction Research & Collaborating Centre (NARCC) will be putting up a week long campaign in conjunction with World No Tobacco Day, 31st May 2014, to push health awareness regarding the dangers of tobacco smoking. In this week, we will be publishing many articles that speak on tobacco policies and health awareness by various health professionals; doctors, dentists and pharmacists.
We intend to make a mark on social media as well, with a newly created hashtag of #SmokeFreeMy. Through our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mmgazette) and Twitter (@MMGazette) accounts, we will be engaging the public to help with our campaign as well as highlighting important issues on tobacco smoking.
It is time we fight back against tobacco smoking.
Dr. Khoo Yoong Khean is the Managing Editor of the Malaysian Medical Gazette.