A battle against tobacco
To all those present have a cordial greeting in this celebration of the International Day of the Non -smoker that is, without a doubt, a date of enormous importance to the health of all people. Worldwide, as is public, smoking is the first cause of preventable death, it constitutes one of the greatest public health problems by causing serious health damage due to multiple associated diseases, in addition to its negative effects for the mediumEnvironment and economy of both smokers and non -smokers.
The World Health Organization, every May 31, calls on the international community to raise awareness about the lethal effects of the smoking epidemic and the risks associated with the consumption of tobacco products. Today I want to dedicate this reflection day not to reiterate the figures of disease and death associated with tobacco consumption that you and I know very well.
This day I dedicate to glorify the deep changes where we must locate the result of our present efforts and clarify with certainty what we still have to do. It is not a utopia, but the real possibility of persevering in the change that makes tobacco a crude anecdote more in the history of humanity. Glorify the measures that, with continuous and compete work, will lead us to the prelude to a country free of tobacco.
Smoking Mata and Cuesta. Heart infarcts, vascular brain diseases, pulmonary emphysema, lung cancer. All of them mean a huge financial burden for health systems. Undoubted.
It is important to remember the global magnitude of the Epidemic of smoking and the necessary international mobilization to reverse its consequences. The framework agreement for the tobacco control of the World Health Organization has become, since its approval in 2003, the navigation letter for an integral approach to the problem of tobacco consumption internationally, privileging public health onany other approach or interest.
In our country, the burden of disease, disability and premature deaths due to tobacco consumption has had a response inspired by the WHO frame agreement, which from the level of public policies, has allowed us to carry out legislative, fiscal actions, administrative, and of course public health, to reinforce the health system from a preventive perspective to reduce the prevalence in the consumption of tobacco products and offer all those who wish to quit smoking the therapeutic alternatives necessary to achieve it.
To cope with the smoking epidemic in Peru, we have comprehensive measures today.We have defined spaces with public access exclusively for smoking;Import and export regulation of tobacco products, its labeling and packaging and on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of the same. The selective tax consumption tax was established. A telephone assistance number that provides attention and advice to all people interested in quitting smoking was made available to tobacco products.
I also highlight the creation Center for Information and Education for the Prevention of Drug Abuse (CEDRO) whose mission is to guarantee the coordination of preventive services and the treatment of addictions throughout the country.
The road is long and complex. In the fifties of the last century smoking represented virility and was associated with cinema mainly with economic and social success. Today scientific evidence proves that smoking, among other things, produces helplessness. In the sixties smoking he associated with female independence and liberation. Today we know that there is no worse form of slavery than to depend on a substance to live.
I hope that in the future we recognize that it was an addiction to which the willpower did not suffice and that there was a time when the terrible damage that produced the health of smoking were not known. To reach this future reality but worked from the present, we will continue to promote the indispensable health promotion measures.
Today we celebrate the advances and recognize the dimension of the new challenges. Today we redouble efforts and put our capacities to consolidate public policies that control tobacco and keep the population permanently informed about their devastating effects.
And to the smokers, those who want to quit smoking, I urge you to recover their health, because, as the great Spanish playwright Calderón de la Barca said: "The best victory is in overcoming itself".
Personal victory against any addiction is the biggest battle of life. Thank you very much.
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