THE Education Ministry, in collaboration with Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), will be hosting a school concert to observe World No Tobacco Day 2011, on May 31. The venue is South Ruimveldt Primary School in Georgetown and the theme is ‘Guyanese Children United in the Fight for a Smoke Free Environment,’ a release said.
The programme targets primary school learners in vulnerable communities and will feature presentations from the host school, Enterprise, St. Pius, Tucville and East La Penitence primary schools, in dance, drama, poetry, song and interactive talks.
Each year World No Tobacco Day is observed to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocates for effective policies to reduce its consumption.
The release warns that tobacco use leads, most commonly, to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema and cancer (particularly of the lung, larynx, mouth and pancreatic cancer).
The WHO estimates that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and 100 million over the course of the 20th century. Similarly, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as the single most preventable risk to human health in developed countries and a major cause of premature death worldwide, the release said.
It added that rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in the developed world. In the United States (U.S.) it has dropped by half, between 1965 and 2006, falling from 42 percent to 20.8 percent in adults.
The release said, in the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4 percent annually and the Guyana Education Ministry, through its partnerships with the Health Ministry and PAHO, has given recognition to the importance of raising awareness to the danger of tobacco use.
Testimony to this is the move by the Education Ministry to declare all schools and related environments across Guyana ‘Smoke Free Zones’.
Education Minister Shaik Baksh has also, publicly, vowed to take strong disciplinary action against teachers who are founding smoking on school premises, the release reminded.