The Member Secretary for District Level Coordination Committee for Tobacco Control organized an awareness programme on ” ill effects of Tobacco” for Salcete Taluka on 01st July 2022 at the Collectorate of South Margao, in order to celebrate “World No Tobacco Month”.
11 NSS volunteers along with NSS programme officer Mr. Sanjay Velip actively participated in the programme. The programme began with the welcomeaddress delivered by Ms. Jyoti Kumari IAS, Collector & District Magistrate South Goa. She stressed on the role of youth to spread awareness among people about the problems of tobacco. She also highlighted the facts about, the number of deaths of people every year because of consuming tobacco. This was followed by an introduction of the Resource Person. The Resource Person for the programme was Dr. Sarah George and Ms. Carol Noronha from District Tobacco Control Cell, New District Hospital Margao.
Dr. Sarah George began her session by speaking on the modes of use of tobacco. She also highlighted some ill effects of tobacco on health such as lower respiratory illness, pneumonia, lung cancer, etc. she also said that tobacco is not only harmful to human health but also it is very dangerous to the environment. She said that tobacco is a root cause of climatic change, as a lot of deforestation has been done to cultivate tobacco. Finally, she highlighted some measures to fight against tobacco like raising the tax, banning advertisements by tobacco companies, Strict implementation of the COTPA Act etc.
Ms. Carol Noronha, a Counsellor, stressed on why do people use tobacco? She emphasized that curiosity and experimentation, fun and enjoyment, relief of negative feelings like stress, emotional problems etc. are the main cause of people using tobacco. lastly, she concludes her session by saying that we need to give specific advice to the tobacco user to quit.
Finally, the programme ended by taking the “No Tobacco Pledge” by all the participants.
