150 primary school students found smoking in T'ganu

KUALA TERENGGANU: A screening conducted by the Terengganu State Health Department through its "Oral Health Free of Cigarette Smoke" (Kotak) programme last year detected 150 smokers among primary school students in the state, with three of them from Standard One and Two.
State Health director Dr Mohammad Omar said the programme conducted in collaboration with the State Education Department aimed to increase students' awareness of oral health.
"A total of 106,162 primary and secondary school students were screened last year, and 1,276 who were identified as smokers were called in for counselling.
"As a result, 274 of them quit smoking after intervention through counselling sessions, and we hope more will quit the bad habit as soon as possible," he told reporters after officiating the state-level World Oral Health Day celebration here, today.
Earlier during his speech, Mohammad said a national oral health study involving adults in Terengganu in 2010 found that nine out of the 10 of them suffered tooth decay.
"This illustrates that many adults have still not received proper dental treatment such as dental fillings to treat the damage.
"It is estimated that 5% of adults have never received dental treatment, while 50% last had a dental check up done more than two years ago, and only 20% have had it within a year," he said.
He hoped the people of Terengganu would take dental health care more seriously to prevent unnecessary health risks. — Bernama