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MANILA: As a 10-year-old boy, Japanese Yuhta Ohishi
learned that he had developed severe asthma due to inhaled
second-hand smoke from his neighborhood. He then wrote reports and
petitions to officials of his city to regulate smoking in public
places after studying the effects of tobacco smoke even to the
passive smokers’ health.
Slowly but surely, he gained
public support and the local policies were later reformed. In 2005,
smoking was banned on the streets of his hometown. Three-years
later, he earned a World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco
Day Award for his relentless efforts.
“You can just imagine how,
single-handedly, a young boy of 10, 11, 12 would be lobbying and
presenting his case to the city council of Shizuoka, and
successfully convincing the city council to pass the legislation,”
said Dr. Linda Milan, WHO director for Building Health Communities
and Population.
Ohishi flew from Japan to the
Philippines to receive his award in time for the WHO’s celebration
of the World No Tobacco Day in Manila on Friday. Ohishi was the
youngest in 19 years to receive such award.
The other World No Tobacco Day
prizewinners in the Western Pacific region were the Cambodia
Movement for Health, Beijing Vice Mayor Ding Xiangyang, Smoke-Free
Luang Prabang of Laos, and the Hanoi School of Public Health in
Vietnam.
“Yutha is an inspiration to
young people as well as to adults,” Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO regional
director for the Western Pacific.
“He has taken a stand to help
free his world from the hazardous substance that is responsible for
the death of two people every minute in the Western Pacific Region.
To successfully curb the tobacco epidemic, it is critical that we
involve young people in a movement for change,” Shigeru added.
WHO noted that the tobacco
industry currently preys on the vulnerability of young people,
knowing most youth underestimate the risk of becoming addicted to
nicotine and the habit’s tragic consequences.
 --Xinhua
With Rommel Lontayao
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