10:10, 10/10/2020

Raising tobacco health risk awareness among the youth

 Nha Trang City Youth Union has directed its affiliations of communes, wards, schools and agencies to take various measures to raise awareness of hazardous effects of tobacco use...

Over the past time, Nha Trang City Youth Union has directed its affiliations of communes, wards, schools and agencies to take various measures to raise awareness of hazardous effects of tobacco use among Youth Union members, young people and residents in the city.
 
According to Pham Ngoc Thach, Secretary of Nha Trang City Youth Union, there are 13,000 Youth Union members and young people in the city. Under the city Youth Union, People’s Committee and Khanh Hoa Youth Union’s direction on developing workplace culture, Nha Trang Youth Union has directed its affiliations to encourage young people to follow the Tobacco Control Law and adopt a tobacco free lifestyle; propagandize tobacco cessation measures and smoke-free policies in public places; strengthen the enforcement of smoke-free policies with non-smoking signs put in easily seen places; organize the signing of  tobacco-free pledges in non-smoking places and gradually quit smoking. Smoking control is included in yearly task of the city Youth Union and becomes one of assessment criteria for Youth Union members.
 

 

1
Youth Union members and young people join an anti-smoking parade.
 
 
Besides including the propaganda of harmful effects of tobacco at meetings, talks, activities and on websites, the City Youth Union has also cooperated with functional agencies of the city to organize activities such as meetings and street parades in response to the national smoke-free week on May 25-31 and the World No Tobacco Day (May 31) to raise public awareness of harmful effects of tobacco on health, family budget and society; smoking as a cause for cancer and other diseases; hazardous effects of smoking on the health of smokers, passive smokers, families and community. Many Youth Union members, officials, young people and residents have become aware of keeping smoke-free workplace as well as preventing health hazardous of tobacco use.
 
There are more than 9,000 Youth Union members and young people, including nearly 5,000 males, at schools. Every year, the city Youth Union cooperates with schools to develop a variety of measures to raise awareness of harmful effects of tobacco and anti-smoking regulations at school. Information about harmful effects of tobacco is given at class and school meetings and propaganda talks to raise students’ awareness of the Tobacco Control Law, anti-smoking regulations and harmful effects of tobacco on the health of smokers and those around them.
 
Besides achievements, tobacco control propaganda among Youth Union members has met some challenges. The solution requires close cooperation between schools and families, more propaganda of the Tobacco Control Law through groups or clubs to raise their awareness of tobacco-related hazards.
 
In the coming time, the Youth Union will proactively coordinate with schools to promote propaganda about the Tobacco Control Law through Youth Union programs and extra-curricular activities to raise young people’s awareness of harmful effects of smoking; mobilize their participation in online knowledge contests about the Tobacco Control Law; organize many extracurricular activities to provide useful playgrounds; and direct Youth Union branches and affiliations to organize the signing of commitments to keep a healthy, smoke-free working environment, according to Pham Ngoc Thach.
 
Khanh Ha
Translated by N.T