"I know my cigarette smoke will affect people who don't smoke around me but I didn't know it was so serious," said Nguyen Van Dung from northern Hai Duong Province, who is being treated for lung cancer at Hospital K in Ha Noi. Diep claimed that he didn't know how many people would be affected by his habit.

The 58-year-old man went to the hospital almost every week to have his health checked. He smoked over the past 30 years, burning one cigarette package per day and there were a lot of non-smokers that were around him while he smoked.

"Fortunately my two daughters don't smoke, but maybe there are people who suffered from my cigarette smoke. I tried to stop smoking many times but I was not successful," saidDiep.

Do Dinh Khoa, 50, who began smoking in 1966 is being treated at the same hospital as Diep. He has quit smoking after being diagnosed with cancer.

Another patient, Hoang Trong Tai, began smoking in 1978 during his time in the military. Tai claimed to have never gotten sick before, but discovered he had cancer after he started coughing up blood.

Tran Van Thuan, director of Hospital K (cancer), said that more than 80 per cent of patients of the hospital suffered lung cancer.

"Right now the hospital is overloaded. Every day we receive more than 1,000 cancer patients who want to be treated at the hospital. Many cancer patients at the hospital are secondhand smokers," Thuan said.

Every year, 150,000 people are diagnosed with cancer and 80,000 people die from cancer in the country.

According to Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Medical Services Administration and Standing Office for Viet Nam Steering Committee on Smoking & Health, 50 per cent of adults in the country are smokers, which means that there are approximately 17 million smokers in the country.

"It is obvious that the number of smokers is lower than that of non-smokers. We should not let more than 60 million people be exposed to second hand smoke," Khue said.

A recent survey conducted in Viet Nam shows that more than 40,000 people die of diseases related to smoking every year. That means every day more than 100 people die from tobacco-related illnesses.

The hospital along with the Ministry of Health is dedicated to building a smoke free environment at the hospital. Several courses on preventing smoking have been organised to educate the hospital's staff members and patients' relatives.

A recent project by the Centre for Research and Community Development Services (CDS) in northern Ha Long City received strong support from tourists and the community.

"We intend to turn HaLong City into a smoke free city. Although there are manys challenges that have arisen during the pilot project, we have seen encouraging results," Tran Quoc Binh, director of the centre said.

The project has received strong support from tourists and local hotels. The project was followed by Government Decree No 1315. Many training courses were organised for the directors of hotels and restaurants in the city. "Restaurants' owners were afraid they would lose business from guests who smoke, but finally every thing is ok because they may lose one smoking guest but they get five non-smoking customners," Binh said. The pilot project was carried out by the WHO and CDS and will be expanded to other provinces.

Diep said he regreted the habit while he limped home. "If there was more information about the harm that smoking brings to myself and other smokers, I would quit."

"If a few people die in a traffic accident, the media will cause an uproar, but thousands of people die from smoking and not many articles have been published about that,"Diep said. — VNS

(Vietnam News, 24/05/2010)