No smoking campaign launched among Thai youngsters

BANGKOK, May 31 (TNA) - Marking the World No Tobacco Day, which falls on every May 31, Bangkok-based Siriraj Hospital’s Faculty of Medicine has launched a no-smoking campaign for youngsters in the country, under the concept called "Gen Z, Gen Strong". The faculty's deputy dean, Assist. Prof. Dr. Yuthana Udomporn, presided over a ceremony to launch the campaign on Tuesday, as part of Thailand's observing the World No Tobacco Day 2016. The campaign is aimed to provide knowledge on the danger of tobacco to people in Thailand, aged 7-21 years old. Surveys showed that cigarette manufacturers were focusing on new faces of smokers, after most smokers had died from diseases related to smoking cigarette. In Thailand, the number of smokers had, however, declined to 10.9 million in 2015, from 11.4 million a year earlier. Gen Z, an abbreviated form of the Generation Z, are people who were born after the Generation Y/Millennials. The generation is most commonly defined with birth years starting in the mid-1990s although the early or the late 1990s and the early 2000s have also been used as starting birth years for this generation. Members of the Generation Z are typically thought of being comfortable with technologies and interacting on social media for a significant portion of their socialising. (TNA)