By Alex Ardiansyah
SERDANG, 17 Nov – Health education on the dangers of cigarette smoke to passive smokers especially children should be emphasised so that they can stay away and be free from the dangers of cigarette smoke.
The Deputy Dean (Graduate, Industrial Network and Community), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shamsul Bahri Mohd Tamrin said it is because smokers do not only endanger their own health but also their surroundings including the children.
He said, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 600,000 deaths are expected to occur annually due to passive smokers with 165,000 deaths among children due to the infection in their respiratory tract caused by passive smoking.
"The saddest part is that those who smoke are not only endangering themselves but also the communities around them such as their spouses, families, children and the society.”
"These passive smokers inhale the air huffed by smokers and receive even worse complications than the smokers," he said when launching the Pengehakupayaan Perokok Pasif programme, 2017, here.
The programme, organised by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UPM, was attended by 160 participants including kindergarten students, secondary school students, members of the female association, members of the community association and students from the Faculty of Education, UPM.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shamsul Bahri also said that according to MyHealth Portal of the Ministry of Health, the smoke inhaled by passive smokers contains twice the amount of nicotine content, three times the amount of the tar content, five times the amount of carbon monoxide content and 50 times the amount of harmful chemicals content.
According to the CDC, Atlanta, USA, passive smokers have a risk of 25 to 30 percent to get heart disease complications, 20 to 30 percent to get stroke and 20 to 30 percent to get lung cancer.
Hence, he said, the community should take steps to ensure that they and their families are free from the threats of being a passive smoker by prohibiting anyone from smoking in or near their homes and forbidding anyone from smoking in the car. -UPM
