........"DO SMOKERS REALLY CARE?".......

........Do smokers really care?........

      Like food and sex, smoking's all about pleasure and to some extent, sustenance--that bolt of energy that swarms through your senses with the first long drag, tapering down into a buzz that just might get you through another page of prose or another stanza.
     The best advice I can give to non-smokers is, get off smokers back if they resist your efforts to get them to stop.  If you can't stand their smoke, steer clear of them, or designate space where they can burn their lungs away.
      It's sad that some smokers can no longer decide for themselves, as if their chemistry making their minds up for them.  But once upon a time they had a choice, and they made it.  If they want help and are willing to be helped, good, if not wish them long a productive and happy life as they can manage, and a quick passing, which unfortunately will very likely not be painless.
      To smokers, please don't smoke in a non-smoking zone.  Certainly you have rights to do as you please, but not at the expense of the people around you.  It's an imposition many of us would be happy to be without.  If you smoke and I still hang out with you, that means I like you enough to shave a few minutes off my life for a few in your company- - so buy me a soft drinks will you?...

......FILIPINO SMOKING MANIA ......
      The popularity of smoking in the Philippines not just among adults, but even with our youth.
The country has 17.3  million adult smokers, which squarely puts us as having one of the highest smoking prevalence rates in the world.  In fact, we are ranked 12th among males, and 5th among females.  More alarmingly, the growing population of youth smokers, one that has increased by almost 40 percent during a span of four years.  According to the 2000 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, there are even cases of children younger than 10 years old who have started to pick up the filthy habit.
      No wonder then that the cost to our society because of smoking ills is also on the rise.  An estimated 30,000 Filipinos die yearly of smoking related illness, including diseases of the heart, nervous system, pulmonary system, and various cancers.
      Another 30,000 people, second hand smokers on individuals exposed to the smoke of those who drag on the nicotine of their cigars cigarettes, are estimated to be afflicted by this smoking mania.  Particularly vulnerable are children with asthma.
      The cost of smoking to the  country, both in terms of health care and productivity losses, is estimated belong to the lower levels of the income strata, and subsequently pose a higher burden on the public health care system.
      The option to collect more taxes on cigarettes continues to be most sensible alternative facing our current government, not   just in terms of raising revenues but also confronting a costly malady of smoking that currently exists.