UNMIK ON AIR

02 June, 2003

Anti smoking day

(Hysni Recica)

VOX-POP:

How long have you been smoking?

Four years.

Why do you smoke?

I like it.

VOX-POP

What is it that you find good in that cigarette.

Nothing, it is just habit, plus I have been smoking for a long time.

For how long have you been smoking

20 years

VOX-POP:

Can’t you just not smoke?

no,

why?

nervousness, poverty, problems, I buy cigarettes with whatever money I make. It helps me spend time in an easier way.

Do cigarettes help you do that?

yes they help me a lot. I see I cough sometimes, but simply I cannot help it.

How long have you been smoking?

over 30 years.

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on air with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi.

Tobacco now kills about five million people each year – but Kosovo continues to be one giant ashtray. Smoking is almost a way of life here, for many, an indispensable part of socializing. Yet the alarm bells are ringing louder and louder – to mark the worldwide anti-smoking day on May 31^st, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking with the approval by member states of a new treaty on Tobacco Control.

The treaty would require countries to ban or restrict advertising and other efforts by tobacco companies to market their products. Stringent new health warnings are to be introduced. The treaty also urges governments to strengthen indoor-air laws, place high taxes on tobacco and act to stop illegal trade in cigarettes.

To bring the treaty into effect, at least forty countries must now accept it as law.

Music up and under

In Kosovo too, the anti-smoking campaign has kicked off. Ilir Begolli, from the Institute of Public Health says the money involved in tobacco advertising is a big problem.

Ilir Begolli: the amount of money dedicated to advertising tobacco products cannot be compared with the money and activities to prevent smoking. The good thing is that we are all aware, including smokers, that smoking does not bring any good; therefore even they are involved in the campaign.

Mustafa Recica has been smoking 2 to 3 packs a day for almost 30 years. Though he and his wife are both smokers, they have managed to send the right message to the children.

Mustafa Recica: Though my wife and me smoke, our five children not only do not smoke but they are irritated by smoke. There is no chance for them to start smoking. We have educated them not to smoke, and they have not got into smoking, because I explained to them clearly.

Smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. It also harms the unborn children of pregnant women. These warnings have been around for decades, yet people continue to smoke. It begins with curiosity says, Dr. Ilir Begolli and then quickly becomes a habit. A common misconception he says, is thinking that smoking can calm you.

Ilir Begolli: If I hit my finger with a hammer, and my finger hurts, I will never do that again, but I continue smoking since today it does not cause coughing, it is not damaging my heart or my brain, but the effect accumulates, and the consequences follow.

VOX-POPS

Have you ever tried to quit?

I tried two or three times, each time for four or five days. I could no longer. My friendship is such that you cannot quit. While I was alone I managed without cigarettes, once with friends, I could no longer resist.

Hysni: Can you have coffee without smoking?

No, way, I cannot even imagine. If I don’t smoke, I don’t drink coffee.

The well-known American writer Mark Twain was once asked whether it is easy to quit smoking. He answered it is quite easy since he had managed to quit smoking 20 times. If people were aware of the consequence, they would quit only once, says Dr. Ilir Begolli.

Ilir Begolli: Smoking does not affect only one system of the body, from the moment the cigarette touches the lips it affects many organs; Just be aware of the consequences and make the decision yourself.

And with that advise we end this edition of unmik on air. Thanks for listening .