Smoke-Free School Aims to Snuff Out Habit

Pursat province’s Prek Sdey High School on Friday became the first smoke-free school in Cam­­bodia in an early morning cer­­e­mony in which all tobacco products were banned from the school’s grounds.

“It is pivotal that smoking be curbed in schools, and it is pivotal that the message come from students themselves,” said Dr Yel Dar­a­­vuth, program director for the Adventist Development and Re­­­lief Agency, which sponsored the program. “When students see their teachers smoking, ­they think it is OK.”

The ceremony ­included­ a student-written and -produced drama about smok­ing’s harmful effects.

ADRA’s Tobacco or Health cam­­­­­­paign, which ­works with the  Ed­­ucation Min­­istry to include to­­­bacco education in secondary school cur­riculums, has stalled due to the government deadlock.

“Now we are waiting for the gov­­­ernment,” said Yel Daravuth. “We can’t lobby the Ministry of Ed­­ucation because there is no Min­istry of Education.”

According to new data gathered by ADRA, s­ubstantially more wo­men smoke in rural Cambodia than in Phnom Penh. While only

6 percent of Cam­bo­dian women na­­tionwide smoke, up to 50 percent of wo­men in rural ­regions smoke, ADRA claimed.

The data updates the 2000 Cam­bo­dian Demographic and Health Survey, sponsored by the Plan­ning and Health min­istries, which in­cluded a household survey of 15,000 wo­men nationwide.

To maintain tobacco-use statistics, ADRA ­has sponsored a num­­­ber of surveys over the last few years. Participants are questioned on their health and educational status, as well as their tobacco use in the­ preceding 24 hours.

“The data on women smokers is extremely dependent on re­gion,” said Yel Daravuth. “Very few women smoke in Phnom Penh. This is not the case in the prov­­­inces.”

The data reveals that nationwide, 8 percent of women smoke dur­ing ­pregnancy, many of whom smoke more than six cigarettes a day. ­Few people consider to­­bac­co use to be a concern, largely be­­­­cause they do not associate smoking with health ailments.

Cam­bodia hasn’t signed a June UN treaty ­aimed at decreasing to­bac­co consumption worldwide. Viet­nam, Laos, Malay­sia, Thai­land and 70 other na­tions have signed. Sophal Oum, the Health Min­is­try’s deputy director general of health, said he did not know why the government has not yet signed the treaty.