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yesilay.org.tr
44
YEŞiLAY
•
SPRING 2015
T
DURGUT
PERVİNTUBA
INTERVIEW
The Green Crescent has taken a serious step to solve this
problem and made an awareness campaign with the motto
“Death is lunking at it's tip.” In this campaign, The Green
Crescent tries to emphasize that water-pipe is a tobacco
product, its flavor is added for softening tobacco but not
enough to minimize its harms and it is not a reminiscence
of Ottomans but there is a huge industry trying to increase
the consumption of tobacco products with different tricks
after smoking bans. We talked about the realities of water-
pipe and the fate of campaign with Pervin Tuba Durgut,
campaign director, executive board member of The Green
Crescent and Ministry of Family and Social Policies Adviser.
WARNING FOR YOUTH: NO PLEASURE IN
WATER-PIPE, JUST DEATH AT THE END!
How did The Green Crescent decide to deal with water-
pipe? Is water-pipe an important health concern in its real
sense?
The Green Crescent has initiated this campaign as a part of
tobacco control efforts. As WHO has stated, tobacco use is
the leading cause behind preventable death and diseases in
the world. Tobacco use which is responsible for the death of
one hundred thousand people only in our country, surely,
is a significant health concern. Especially, after releasing
aromatic tobacco in 1990’s, water-pipe broke out and
began spreading among young people and teenagers as a
new threat for tobacco control efforts. Just like smoking,
fast spread of water-pipe, which is addictive and causes
Young people are trapped in illusions about water-pipe, saying “Once, it is not harmful, it is
cleansed through water, and also makes our chat deeper, pleasant, comes fromOttoman
culture” Is water-pipe, in fact, a harmless tobacco product? Or else is it a threat containing lots
of poisons and causing many malignant diseases like every tobacco product?
Fast spread of water-pipe (shisha), which is addictive, is a public health
concern that must be fought against.