Participants in the Media Awareness Workshop for a Smoke-free Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City
On September 19, the American Cancer Society convened about 50 journalists in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for the second and final part of the Media Awareness Workshop for a Smoke-free Vietnam. This event, organized by the Society and the Vietnam Steering Committee on Smoking and Health (VINACOSH), followed the successful first part of the media workshop, held earlier last month in Hanoi. American Cancer Society experts shared experiences on writing news stories on tobacco control and other health-related topics. The experts described ways in which journalists can capture the reader’s attention and improve health awareness, especially related to tobacco use. Speakers from the Ho Chi Minh School of Public Health, National Youth Newspaper, and Ho Chi Minh Health Services Department shared their success stories on smoke-free policies in the workplace. Vietnamese journalists came away from the workshop with more knowledge on the impact of tobacco use and vowed to disseminate more information on tobacco control to the public. According to the World Health Organization, each year approximately $786 million is spent on cigarettes and 40,000 people die due to smoking-related illnesses in Vietnam.
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