Dr. Leong Oon Keong's welcome speech during the opening of the Smoking Cessation Workshop on 25th October 2009 at Impiana Casuarina Hotel, Ipoh, Perak.

Mr. Chairman, 

Prof. Haniki, Mr. Chandran.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning and welcome to our first Smoking Cessation Workshop in Perak.

Tobacco smoke has caused untold miseries to many people.  It is the cause of many types of cancers ranging from lung cancer, mouth cancer, pancreatic cancer and bladder cancer.  Tobacco smoke also causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attacks and strokes which are important causes of morbidity and mortality in Malaysia.   

The nicotine in tobacco smoke is very addictive.  A person, whether young or old, who is hooked to smoking finds it very difficult to stop smoking by himself or herself.  Help is usually required to assist smokers to abstain from smoking and prevent a relapse. 

We, the participants of this workshop, are going to be the champions who will lend a helping hand to these smokers who wish to quit.  We shall offer assistance in terms of counselling and providing the best smoking cessation medicine available.  Today we shall learn some simple counselling techniques.  We shall also learn how to choose the correct medicine which offers the highest success rate for continued smoking abstinence.

From today on, we shall be the advocates for clean air.  Air free of smoke is a vital ingredient for life and healthy living.  We owe it to ourselves, families and friends to make air free from environmental tobacco smoke or second hand smoke brought about by smokers.  We shall be the ones who would frown upon smoking so much so that smokers would feel ashamed of themselves when they smoke in public.  Smokers should rightfully feel that they are not welcomed to pollute the air that we breathe.  Smokers should begin to understand that their practice of smoking is now considered an abnormal behaviour and smoking a dreadful disease.  We should no longer consider smoking a personal habit or a life style choice. 

Smoking, due to nicotine addiction, is a disease.  It is only when we accept that smoking is a disease that we would diligently document it, diagnose it and treat it.  It is like hypertension which is a disease.  We actively look out for hypertension in our patients.  We take a BP for all our patients.  We document hypertension.  We classify how severe the hypertension is.  We treat hypertension and follow up our patients.  We counsel hypertensive patients how to reduce their salt intake and constantly remind them to take their medication regularly. 

Similarly, if we treat smoking and nicotine addiction as a disease we should document it, diagnose it and be able to assess a smoker’s degree of nicotine dependence.  We should counsel them and prescribe medication to treat the disease.  We should closely monitor their progress and seek ways to prevent a smoking relapse.

The aim of this workshop is to provide doctors, pharmacists, nurses and medical assistants the basic knowledge on smoking cessation therapy and how to set up Quit Clinics.  We are glad that this workshop has received good support from interested parties and those who are passionate about helping smokers quit.  We hope the 60 plus participants present here today will take home the skills learnt and put it into practice as soon as possible when they return to their home towns.  Hopefully, the topics covered will create sufficient interest for further in depth reading and understanding on the subject of smoking cessation therapy.

We are indeed honoured to have Assoc. Prof. Mohamad Haniki, Head, Department of Pharmacy Practice, International Islamic University Malaysia and Mr. Chandran Kanniah, Principal Assistant director, State Health Education Unit to be with us today.  They are very experienced in smoking cessation techniques and I am sure you will gather a lot of information from them. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Pfizer who is our sponsor for the workshop.  We hope this workshop will meet your expectations and we encourage your feedback.  This meeting is the launching pad for many more workshops to come throughout the state of Perak.It is our hope that we can get together after this meeting to help form smoking cessation support groups in our home towns.  We welcome you to join the Perak Chest Society to help promote smoking cessation in Perak and to find ways to augment the Government’s “Tak Nak” efforts in getting the anti-smoking message across to the populace.

Without further ado I wish to welcome you once again to our workshop.  Enjoy your stay in Ipoh and have a good time of learning and sharing.

Thank you.

Dr. Leong Oon Keong

Consultant Chest Physician.