CARISA LEE

The Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rance Deyals­ingh is plead­ing with par­ents to ed­u­cate their chil­dren about the dan­gers of smok­ing.

His mes­sage comes on World To­bac­co Day. Ac­cord­ing to Deyals­ingh, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 21 per cent of peo­ple in T&T who use to­bac­co are be­tween the ages of 15 to 64.

He added that the min­istry plans to roll out a no-smok­ing cam­paign en­ti­tled, “Healthy lifestyle al­ter­na­tives to smok­ing 2023.”

The cam­paign will in­clude dig­i­tal ad­vo­ca­cy and a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den­ing ini­tia­tive which will be launched at the Siparia Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, and will tar­get pa­tients of smok­ing ces­sa­tion clin­ics, as well as for­mer smok­ers.

Deyals­ingh al­so re­mind­ed cit­i­zens of the dan­gers of smok­ing, such as the risk of de­vel­op­ing heart dis­ease, hy­per­ten­sion and lung can­cer.