CITY TOWARDS NO SMOKING ZONE
More and more organizations in Chennai are declaring their office and
complex premises Smoking Free areas. Almost Government offices have made their
premises Smoking Free. There has been good amount of awareness on the ills of
Smoking by created by NGOs and state Government; which have been working. R
Narayanaswamy , State Tobacco Control
Officer says that there has been visible change . The sale of tobacco
products, he says, has drastically come down.
“So far 2,200 educational institutions in the State have been declared
no smoking area. Since October 2008, when the ban on smoking in public places
was enforced, the government has collected around Rs.22 lakh as fine from over
19,000 violators across the State,” he says.
In schools and colleges, the NCC and NSS have helped spread the message.
School Task Force on Tobacco Control monitor sale of tobacco products near the
Corporation schools. The Central Board of Secondary Education is bringing a
change in its syllabus to incorporate awareness messages.
Since it rests with the individuals to understand the effect tobacco has
on them personally, self-help groups and women must also participate, says
Prasanna Kannan, Senior State Consultant, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO.
In the run up to World No Tobacco Day on May 31 NGOs have planned
several events. The Cancer Institute, Adyar, would hold a workshop for traders
this week to sensitize them to complying with the COTPA rules. The State
government, under the aegis of the WHO, would organize a rally on that day and
traders have proposed not to sell tobacco products for a day.
By intensifying the effort to educate the youth, there is hope that the
awareness would prevent them from becoming addicted to tobacco, the activists
say.
