Vietnam Actively Fights against Smoke

Although medical agencies have given advices on negative impacts of smoke on human health, about 56 per cent of men and 2 per cent of women in Vietnam are still smoking cigarettes. A national survey in 2002 showed that around 10 per cent of male students at age of 13-15 often smoke.

 

In recent years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam has collaborated with some local agencies to build a model of “smoke-free public spaces” and seen certain achievements. Some typical examples for the model should be mentioned to the Public Health University, the Hoa Sua restaurant, the Nang Tam vegetarian diet restaurant and the Koto restaurant.

 

Tran Van Hai, manager of the Hoa Sua, in No. 20 Ha Hoi Street, in Hanoi said that a modern restaurant should follow the smoke-free model because it creates a better air environment for children and women. In fact, in restaurants applied with the model, the number of foreign fellow dinners seems to be crowded than in other places, Hai added, saying that more and more people are in favour of smoke-free bars and restaurants in which they don’t have to suffer from second-hand smoke (non-smokers are impacted by tobacco smoke from smokers). In addition, such restaurants see some benefits due to diminishing costs arising from smoking. Firstly, smoke-free restaurants will not have to face fire risk of furniture, curtains, carpets or napkins, caused by cigarette ash. Secondly, they spend only a few costs for washing wall, floor, which were dirty with cigarette ash. The reduction of fire risk helps to diminish insurance fees and improve health of restaurant staff.

 

This year, the Vietnam Labour Confederation is one out of many offices strongly promoting the establishment of cigarette smoke-free environment. In these days of May, flags and slogans are stretched in all places in the federation. Many campaigns to propagate anti-smoking program and build smoke-free workplaces have been launched in the past time. Among 200 staff of the federation, there are still 39 male staff smoking. The figure is expected to down to zero at the end of this year, which means that the federation will gain the goal of a smoke-free working environment. It will be a mirror for units directly under the federation such as Labour Newspaper, Trade Union Hotel to follow. Truong Thanh Can, vice head of the federation’s propaganda and training department was a smoker in past, but he has given up tobacco use for ten years, explaining that smoking is harmful to his family’s health and make other people unendurable.

 

Almost all people in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular are non-smokers and they need to be protected from smoke of smokers. All people need a fresh environment to live and work. The WHO has been calling for the whole world to jointly attend into the movement to build a world without cigarette smoke and to require for a fresh atmosphere.