Smoking kills, students warned

 PRIMARY school students between 10 and 17 have been warned they will die prematurely from diseases caused by smoking if they indulge in the bad habit.

National Capital District health education officer nurse Rhonda Tisap told St Therese Primary School students last Thursday that some young people were picking up the bad habits early.

“Today many school students start smoking from as early as 10 years and that poses a real danger because when they are 23, they start to experience  complications,” she said. 

She said tobacco which included cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco and chewing tobacco, was responsible for 8.8% of all deaths and 4.1% of all disability life years worldwide.

“When they smoke at early age, the diseases are prolonged and once they reach the productive stage of around 20, it starts to show and will eventually kill,” Tisap said.

She said the awareness coincided with the “World no tobacco day”. 

The theme is “Ban tobacco sponsorship, ban tobacco scholarship, ban tobacco advertisement”.

She said tobacco was one of the main contributors to heart disease and high blood pressure in PNG.

The NCD health service was focused on educating and nurturing school children to avoid the habit and make the right choice, she said.