A group of teenagers became the latest campaigners against Korea’s cigarette industry on Friday, calling tobacco production unconstitutional.
The students, members of an anti-smoking club at Handong International School in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, have begun an online movement to gather a million signatures. In the petition the middle school and high school students claim that the Tobacco Enterprise Law is “unconstitutional.”
The club, Blue Jeans, is run by 10 students from the international school.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the site had some 220 supporters, with roughly 10 coming in every hour.
Their move echoes one earlier this year when former director of the National Medical Center Park Jae-gahb asked the constitutional court to review the law. According to Park and nine others, the law infringes on the general public’s right to health.
Park argued it was unconstitutional for the industry to produce and supply cigarettes despite their health effects as more than 50,000 people die each year from the direct and indirect effects of smoking.
“The fact that the youth as the future leaders of tomorrow are interested in the health hazards of cigarettes and other social wrongs just shows how much they want to rally the support of the public,” said one school official.
“It speaks great volumes when the youth are interested in the health hazards of smoking and take up an antismoking campaign, considering that six million people worldwide die from smoking-related diseases a year,” said Park.
“I hope that the public turns their interest to the youth who are taking up the antismoking campaign.”
According to OECD data, 44.7 percent of Korean men smoke every day, the second highest rate among OECD countries in 2008.
However, local governments have made an aggressive push to ban smoking at parks, playgrounds, bus stops and other busy, public areas.
By Robert Lee (
robert@heraldcorp.com)
