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Spreading COPD Awareness and a Plan for Smoking Cessation
September 10th, 2010 | Author: Katelyn Harding
Cletus Chi has seen his share of COPD in his home country of Cameroon, due to poor cooking conditions and other environmental factors.
Now, living and working in Raleigh, NC, he wonders what can be done to prevent young people from smoking and getting COPD.
“What about the young ones? Many of them are diving into cigarette smoking. What can we do to persuade them that cigarettes are a bad habit?” he says. “What is happening here [in the US] is happening there [Cameroon], too.
“Where I grew up, I never really understood what COPD was all about. Obviously people smoked, worked in quarries and factories and were exposed to a host of factors that also contributed to COPD, but I never knew what was happening until I got here,” he says. “I became a respiratory therapist and was exposed to patients that are victims of this disease. I have learned about the causes of this disease and have been providing care to a lot of patients.”
Cletus Chi
Chi worked as Respiratory Care Practitioner with Duke University, Durham Regional Hospital and currently works in the respiratory department at the Blue Ridge Health Care Center in Raleigh.
Having seen a lot of COPDers and the numerous diseases associated with it, Chi says we have to be more aggressive in helping minors quit smoking.
“We have to convince the younger generation [to stop smoking], if there must be hope for the future of our country,” he says.
He says that three packs of cigarettes cost around $5 each, and multiply that by 50 years equals $273,750; a lot of money that could be better spent.
Chi’s an advocate for COPD and one of his challenges is effectively reaching out to the media and schools to tell them about the harmful effects of smoking.
“I was a participant at the Virginia Society for Respiratory Care: Central District Capital City Symposium on COPD in September of last year. When we went out for a break, we saw tons and tons of students smoking in turns. That really troubled me, because they were the young people who are supposed to be this nation’s future builders,” he says. “I ask myself, ‘How can we better address the problem of cigarette smoking? How can we educate people? How can we make this message more convincing and acceptable?’”
A Chi has is to create a better strategy of communication to disseminate information on smoking, and help especially young people understand the harm of smoking. He proposed that documentaries could be distributed to schools, along with visual aids demonstrating the hazards of cigarette smoking.
“The US Department of Health and Human Services again has reinforced guidelines which will make it tougher for kids to have access to tobacco or tobacco advertising. We need guidelines to lower or eradicate tobacco use in our high schools even against the dilemma of ‘free will’,” he says.
“The FDA’s current statistics show that on a daily basis, 4,000 kids will try their first cigarette before the age of 18. Out of those, 1,000 will become regular smokers. Something can be done to stop this, and it must be done aggressively,” he says.
Chi says anything that can be done to help people of any age to quit smoking can go an extra mile on this journey.
“I am advocating for an ‘International No-Smoking Day.’ This will be a day to reflect on the advantages and demerits of the habit. How did it start, how much could have been spent, what harm could have been done, what will be left behind,” he says. “From this, new resolutions can be adopted, forums can be created and many can be helped to quit smoking through the testimonies of others.”
In Cameroon, Chi says there is no awareness of COPD.
“Where I come from there is little or no information about COPD, no knowledge to teach about the dangers of smoking, which are my worries and concerns,” he says.
He lived with his grandmother for a long time, and says sometimes when he woke up in the morning his nose and fingers were dark because of the smoke from the kitchen’s stove “the fire-side.”
He worked for years as a stone-cutter, quitting his job to raise money to pay for his education. His father still works in that business and goes into “crisis” once a year with a persistent cough, loss of voice, shortness of breath, etc.
Chi says he’d like to try and get educational material to his home country to help develop a plan to help. He suggests beginning with a questionnaire.
“What I’ve been thinking is to ask basic questions, ‘Do you smoke? How many cigarettes do you smoke? Do you know what COPD is?’” he says. “This will get some information on COPD.”
His goal is to get feedback from people and ask them if they’ve been tested for COPD, to give him a basis on what he can do.
“We have to spare no effort to shape tomorrow’s generation,” Chi says.
