The John Tung Foundation yesterday marked the WHO’s World No Tobacco Day by inviting people to spread its message against cigarettes online.
The foundation’s tobacco control division shared statements on Facebook, including “I refuse to smoke, I am proud,” and “Protect what you love, all tobacco products get out,” and calling on users to repost the messages.
It also asked for donations of receipts for the uniform invoice lottery.
The theme of World No Tobacco Day this year is “Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use.”
The rate of cigarette smoking among adolescents in Taiwan has increased for the first time in a decade, said Chen Miao-hsin (陳妙心), head of the Health Promotion Administration’s Tobacco Control Division, citing an agency study from last year on adolescent smoking behavior.
Electronic cigarette usage among senior-high school and vocational high school students was 5.6 percent, a 60 percent increase from 2018, the study showed.
Electronic cigarettes are a gateway to smoking cigarettes and using drugs, Chen said, adding that companies use “coolness” to attract adolescents or mislead them into thinking that electronic cigarettes are less harmful so that they continue using them, leading to addiction.
Foundation chief executive officer Yao Ssu-yuan (姚思遠) said tobacco companies are using the same marketing techniques they have traditionally used to sell cigarettes to promote electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other new forms of products.
The companies use popular culture and social media to market various products, he said, adding they want to develop a “new generation” of people with addiction — echoing one of the WHO’s main taglines for this year’s World No Tobacco Day: “The secret’s out: If your product killed 8 million people each year, you’d also target a new generation.”
Lin Ching-li (林清麗), head of the foundation’s tobacco control division, said traditional and new forms of tobacco products are both harmful.
To expand their markets and remain profitable, tobacco companies must continue to cultivate young consumer groups, she said.
Among the tactics companies use to target young people are different flavors, eye-catching designs, easy access in stores, media placement, claims of less harm and celebrity sponsorships, she said, citing information from the WHO campaign.
Guo Fei-ran (郭斐然), a doctor at National Taiwan University Hospital’s department of family medicine, said it is a long-standing consensus within the medical community that smoking weakens the immunity of the lungs, making them vulnerable to bacterial and viral pneumonia.
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