Officials advocate for hiring policies that prefer non-smokers

In compliance with President Proclamation No. 183, which was signed in 1993 by then-President Fidel V. Ramos and declared June as “National No Smoking Month,” the Iloilo City Health Office (CHO) is calling on the smoking public to kick the habit.
“Smoking has no benefit to the body,” explained city health officer, Dr. Bernard Caspe. “You will just get various diseases or cancer from head to foot.”
“Better yet, instead of buying cigarettes, buy the things that your family needs because, if you get hospitalized due to smoking, it will cause you more trouble,” he added.
Meanwhile, the CHO has been lobbying the Iloilo City Council to mandate hiring policies that prefer non-smokers.
“We want to have preference [for] non-smokers when choosing employees,” Caspe affirmed. “Maybe those who smoke should undergo our counseling and cessation clinic.”
Earlier this month, Iloilo CHO data showed 4,443 individuals sought assistance in order to quit smoking last year at the CHO cessation clinic, which is located on the second floor in Iloilo City Hall, along with various district health centers.
“Once you undergo consultation [at] our district health centers, we give you counseling and discuss the advantages of not smoking [and] risks to you and to those people around you,” explained Caspe. “During our counseling, we always emphasize that if you want to quit smoking, your will power should be strong and that you should stay away from those who can encourage you to go back to bad habit.”
“Out of 1,408 who quit, 384 of them went back to smoking again,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City health advocates recently spoke before University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos students to discuss the dangers of secondhand smoke. A Philippine Information Agency-Region VI release defines secondhand smoke as the “smoke that originates from lighted cigarettes breathed out by smokers.”
“It’s not enough that we don’t smoke, it is also important and we have to remember that secondhand smoke can also kill us,” explained Bacolod CHO non-communicable diseases cluster head, Dr. Ava Joy Infante./WDJ