KUCHING: 300 people yesterday attended talks on smoking and the dangers of smoking held at the CRC Auditorium of the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here.
The half-day “Nafas Baru Ramadan” Programme was organised by the Patients Education Promotion Unit in collaboration with the Human Development Unit of the Sarawak General Hospital here.
The speaker was Ustaz Mu’al Bin Suaud from the State Mufti Department.
The objective of the talks was to create awareness among smokers and also to educate the public on the dangers of smoking.
The programme was a spiritual approach to increase awareness, especially among smokers, particularly public servants, and to arouse the desire to stop smoking.
Sarawak General Hospital‘s Director, Dr Chin Zin Hing, in his speech, when officiating at the programme, said in Malaysia, there were five million smokers or about 2.22% of the population.
He said the illnesses of most of the patients admitted to the hospital or clinic were related to smoking such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and hypertension.
“Even though they have been advised to stop smoking, they still do,” he said.
Dr Chin said the National Health study also revealed that one in ten Malaysians aged 13 to 17 years old were smokers.
This meant that if they had been smoking from an early age and had 10 years’ history of smoking, the 10 years’ effects of smoking had already caused damages to their lungs and other systems in their bodies.
He said as the programme was organised in conjunction with the coming Ramadan (fasting month), it was a good opportunity and the best time for smokers to quit.
“Those with families or relatives who are smokers should convince, support and encourage them to quit smoking,” Dr Chin said, adding that for smokers, the quitting period was actually quite a difficult period and they needed some emotional support.
He hoped the participants would benefit from programme.
Also present was SGH’s Deputy Director (Medical), Dr Hajjah Hayati Bt Ja’afar.
