Anti-Tobacco Movement

Medical doctors and others opposing the manufacture and sale of discount Dunhill Cigarettes will launch a civic group today to press government officials and lawmakers for the ban on what they believe are ``cancer-causing and highly-addictive’’ products. The organization will stage a public signature-collecting campaign and file a petition with the Constitutional Court to have tobacco products banned from being made and sold here. Park Jae-gahb, professor of College of Medicine at Seoul National University, is leading the anti-cigarette movement. ``We set up the Clean Air & Good Health Society in 2009 to create a world without cigarettes. It is more like a friendly society, not a well-organized civic organization,” Park said. “To more effectively pursue our goals, we have decided to launch a full-scale organization, tentatively named ``Movement Headquarters against Production & Sale of Tobacco in Korea.’’
Over the years, some civic groups have jointly appealed to the President and lawmakers to prohibit the production and sale of tobacco goods, but to no avail. It will be the first time for a civic organization fully dedicated to pursuing such a cause to be launched. Park said the planned group will also play a role as a Korean branch of the Tobacco Free World Alliance. ``The government should scrap the law governing the manufacture and sale of cigarettes as quickly as possible, and ask the National Assembly to initiate the new law banning the cancer-causing products,’’ Park said. He said cigarettes contain some 62 types of cancer-causing substances and among them, nicotine is as highly addictive as opium, stressing that tobacco must not be made available to the public. ``More citizens now know that cigarettes are highly poisonous and addictive. Nothing kills more people than tobacco products in this country,” he said. “Although we know it will take years to see such a harmful product disappear, we will continue to make more efforts to encourage smokers to quit and press the government to introduce measures against tobacco companies.’’ Park said the planned organization will gather signatures from those who are concerned about the ill-effects of cigarettes on human health in order to put more pressure on lawmakers to pay more attention to its cause. ``We will also consider filing a petition to the Constitutional Court, asking it to impose an outright ban on tobacco products.’’ While serving as director of the National Cancer Center, Park declared all areas of the center as no-smoking and asked all employees who smoked to kick the habit. He also organized a series of international symposiums to increase public awareness about the diverse ill-health effects of tobacco products.