REPORT OF SEMINAR ON EMBRACE HEALTH, SAY NO TO TOBACCO
World No Tobacco was established by the member states of the World Health Organization in 1987 with an aim to draw global attention to the “tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and diseases it causes”. A resolution was asked by the World Health Assembly in 1987 following which the WHO announced that May 31 be observed as World No Tobacco Day annually..
The Department of Public Health Dentistry of Azeezia Dental CollegeNSS unit(NSS/SFU/KLM/KUHS/3), Kollam organized a seminar on World No Tobacco Day with the theme – “We need food,not tobacco” on May 29th 2023. The programme started at 2 pm with the welcome address by Dr. Naveen Jacob Varghese, Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, followed by conducting an interactive session on the topic “We need food,not tobacco” by the chief guest Mr. Shaji, Coordinator, Jack fruit Promotion Consortium, Kollam,Kerala. He focused about the importance of consumption of healthy food in our daily routine.
The speech begun with the theme for this year’s World No tobacco day “We need food, not tobacco”. The global campaign is geared towards promoting alternative crop production and marketing opportunities among tobacco farmers. It aims to encourage those involved in the production of tobacco to grow sustainable and nutritious crops. The campaign is also an attempt to ‘‘expose the tobacco industries’ effort to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops,thereby contributing to the global food crisis”.
He gave an alarming note on the current scenario of how badly it has affected the youth in kerala by showing some recent newspaper clippings. He then focused on the theme- “We need food,not tobacco”. The chief guest emphasized on the use of substituting tobacco with healthy and nutritious diet by making jackfruit as an example. He showed variety of dishes made from jackfruit and initiated to switch over to healthy lifestyle by having healthy food. He then showed some of his contributions to the society such as journey with different varieties of dishes made from jackfruit all over kerala called ‘chakka vandi’ ( jack on wheels). He also presented some of his awards and recognitions that he got from the Ministry of Kerala by being a prt of this new initiative which made jackfruit the state fruit of kerala in 2018. An interactive session with students was conducted, where the students could raise the questions and clarify their doubts.
After the session, as a token of gratitude a momento was presented to Mr. Shaji by Dr. Rathy, Vice Principal of Azeezia Dental College. The program was wrapped around by 3.30pm with the vote of thanks given by Dr. Rathy.
