The New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) said the Department of Health may consider applying the same scare tactics it used to campaign against the use of firecrackers during the New Year revelry to its anti-smoking program.

NVAP President Emer Rojas said the DOH’s Iwas Paputok campaign that highlighted graphic images of firecracker-related injures was successful in bringing down the number of victims during the New Year celebration.

“Perhaps the DOH may want to use the same scare tactics to its tobacco control campaign. People react to images that’s why Iwas Paputok was such a successful campaign,” Rojas said.

As of Sunday, the DOH reported a total of 753 firecracker-related injuries collated from records starting December 21 which was 18 percent lower than the five-year average.

Rojas said graphic images will help spread warnings against smoking especially among the poor who consume more tobacco than the rest of smokers.

“Let’s improve awareness by showing the real image of smoking. It’s not the image of coolness or elegance. It’s the image of death, of cancer, of productivity loss, of national economic burden —things we do not see unless we expose tobacco as it really is through graphic images,” Rojas said.