Say 'No' to Tobacco

31st May 2013 is World No Tobacco Day by WHO (World Health Organization). I really don't like smokers and I hate the second hand smoke. So, every time the prime minister announces the budget statement, I welcomed the increase of tax on cigarettes. However, many continue to smoke, don't understand at all!

In Japan, one of the things I don't like when having party with colleagues was that many of them smoke, so the whole room would reek of smokes. So difficult to breath. There is a campaign where 22nd for every months are "No Tobacco Day". 22nd is chosen because "22" looks like two swans, and swan sounds like  'suwan / スワン / 吸わん', which means smoking. The company that I worked for also tried to make the work place more inconvenient to smoke, previously, a designated smoking room was available inside the office building, however, now people have to go out of the building to smoke and the frequency also reduced. 

non smoking day (禁煙の日) - taken from http://blog.canpan.info/nobeokahc/archive/200 

However, in the Malaysia plant, smokers still have a designated smoking room and there is an unofficial smoking break twice a day.(-_-!)

There is an anti smoking advertisement by Malaysian Health Ministry and I felt really sad looking at that part where a mother who had mouth cancer couldn't even tell her son that she loves him and her son was scared of her disfigured face.

an anti smoking commercial by Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia

Another anti smoking advertisement from Thailand is very memorable too. A group of kids were sent out to approach smoking adults for lighter or light up the cigarettes. All the adults instead asked the kids to quit smoking, one even lectured the kid about the danger of smoking and what kind of diseases one could get from smoking. At the end, the kid took out an anti smoking brochure and gave to the adult, most threw away the cigarettes and kept the brochure. A very infectious advertisement!

an anti smoking commercial

Smoking is not only bad for the health, it wastes money too! I hope that all smokers, for the sake of your loved ones, please quit smoking!