Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University
87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, 11 to 12 a,m, Thursday, June 5, 2025
June is National No Smoking month.
"Ano ang Tatak ng Tobacco sayo?"
The first No Smoking Day was on Ash Wednesday in 1984, and it now takes place on the second Wednesday in March (March 31, 2025). Hosts: Fr JM Manzano SJ, Dr Abe V Rotor, Prof Emoy Rodolfo AdMU,
and Prof Pauline Salvana Bautista
Reference and Review Article
"More than 10 Filipinos die every hour." - WHO
(Original title: From cigarette to pipe smoking – then I stopped. A personal saga.)
At an alarming rate, the World Health Organization estimated that tobacco consumption kills 10 Filipinos every hour, due to diseases such as cancer, stroke, lung, and heart diseases brought on by cigarette smoking.
Smoking is No. 1 Killer; it is deadlier than COVID-19. More than 10 Filipinos die every hour. Smoking ban took effect beginning July 22, 2017
This article is a tribute to the late Senator Juan M Flavier and former health secretary for his dedication in anti-smoking campaign. "Yosi Kadiri" was hailed to be a very effective slogan.
This article is addressed to smokers trapped in the vice, like in my case, many years ago - until one day I found my true self and a happy world. I'll be eighty, active and hale and happy.
Dr Abe V Rotor
avrotor.blogspot.com Living with Nature
A pipe a day, for an occasion, for a particular wear. Remaining part of my collections for years.
When you have tasted Half-and-Half or Captain Black, believe me Marlboro and Philip Morris taste flat. That’s how one gets addicted to more and stronger nicotine. And having a pipe on a Monday, and a dozen more to fit each day or occasion, and dress code, makes you stand out of the crowd, so to speak. Wow! Sikat! And you feel a special person. For in the sixties and seventies, up to now, pipe smoking people have either the British or American accent. I even tried Australian but settled poorly with Ilocano, my native tongue. Now compare pipe tobacco with pinadis (hand rolled cigar) tobacco, exaggeratedly foot-long. I almost forgot my origin.
So you see smoking is air, it is high society, it is macho, it is advertising something you do not really have, or have to. I wore coat and tie once in a while with Sherlock Holmes’ “S” pipe, or wore khaki jacket and denim pants and had MacArthur corn cob pipe. I also had pipes with the bowl covered with genuine leather from camel, kangaroo and anaconda, and made people believe I have gone all over the world including the Amazon. Which actually I hadn’t except a stopover once in Europe which introduced me to the idea of shifting to pipe smoking.
And I had a friend, Sel, who shared the same idea. So after finishing our doctorate degree, we started scouting for the best pipe in town. Definitely it should be made of briar wood because it’s the only wood that does not burn literally, and its nesting weight on the palm of the hand is assuring. I suspect that it’s being a briar is not the species but the age of the wood, perhaps as old as the Redwood or the Bristle Cone, estimated to be two to three thousand years old. Imagine holding a piece of time as early as BC. And history! Just like what the great English poet William Blake said, “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” You hold too, time and space. Pipe smoking leads you to hallucination.
I tell you what the substance is – the filler tobacco - that rouses the olfactory more than grandma's pie? It must come from a combination of selected tobacco varieties, cured with the best liqueur, and hermetically sealed to greet the user as fresh as it was blended. In Europe a blend is highly personalized, like wine. This is top secret of connoisseurs. For us here, I for one settled for two brands, American and European pipe tobacco in can, then the only available ones. Believe me the difference between the two is indistinguishable. It’s still Nicotiana tabacum, the same tobacco of Fidel Ramos, Deng Hsiao Ping, Fidel Castro, et al.
More about the art of pipe smoking. I lit my pipe with a special lighter whose flame goes downward into the bowl, and witnessed in the process of huff-and puff a Krakatoa in the making. I peered into the glowing crater. Then I would savor the maiden smoke as fresh as morning air, blowing it in a series of “O’s” which takes skill to perfect it. You don’t inhale, unlike cigarette. The smoke runs through the oral to the nasal cavity and out through the nostril, gently fuming a cloud of smoke that surrounds the face, with your eyes half close in dreamy relaxation. It was really thrilling, exhilarating. What on a Sunday morning with brewed black coffee and newspaper and elevated feet?. Ah, and ahs….
Some high-chin and easy-chair years passed. I was in my middle thirties, still a bachelor. I wondered if pipe smoking attracted women of my liking. Or did I drive them to safe distance? On the mirror I didn’t change, not a bit American or European. Not even with sparse mustache which I jokingly tell my barber it is insured like that of Clark Gable's. My lips were a little deformed now, and being right handed the pipe tended to settle rightward, with some teeth bearing the weight giving in. My lips lost their natural curve and color, and my teeth permanently stained no toothpaste would dare clean it in advertisement. My fingers could be mistaken for pellagra. If only they had the Midas touch!
I reeked tobacco. People avoided me, but how did I know, if I couldn't even smell myself? It’s true. Smokers are immune to the smell of tobacco, and it is stale odor – breath, sweat, clothes, books, bed, and the like - so whom would they trust to tell them so? And my skin became dull and dry, and episodes of feeling down became frequent – so with refilling and caressing my pipe. In short I was already addicted to the nicotine and the pipe is now only secondary to it.
Nicotine is a poison, a very strong one. The extract of one stick of cigarette when directly injected into the blood stream will immediately kill the person. So why don’t we die with packs and packs of cigarette or can after can of mixed tobacco?
Doctors tell us that it’s not the nicotine per se that kills, it’s tar its carrier and a dozen other poisonous substances. The tar deposits into the alveoli, the countless air sacs in the lungs, constricts blood vessels, and stains teeth and clothes. The alkaloids pile up in the kidneys and liver, and restrict natural elimination of other toxins. Elevated heart and pulse rate is our body’s coping mechanism, but like a car running uphill it loses steam fast and soon, until it conks out. Eyesight blurs, sense of taste deadens, so with sensation to touch, pain and pleasure. Alertness slows down, sex urge decreases and staying power shortens.
And it is not the tobacco plant itself that's the enemy; it is how it is grown. The plant picks up the arsenic dusted or sprayed, the lead and mercury in contaminated soil, so with cadmium from batteries today. Systemic pesticides that kill insects, nematodes and mites ensconced in the plant body, unreached by ordinary spraying, persist as residue of high dosage.
By the way, there’s something in the tobacco that changed biology on the concept of what really makes a thing living?. It is the tobacco mosaic virus, Marmor tabaci. The rod shape virus infects tobacco on the field just by rubbing or mere touch of a diseased to healthy plants. And it infects as well all members of the tobacco family - Solanaceae , to which Irish potato, pepper, eggplant, tomato belong. The virus remains dormant for as long as twenty years in the cigarette or filler. And when you touch any of the host plant, the virus resurrects and spreads out in the whole plant and onto neighboring plants. Luckily, scientists assures us the virus has no effect on humans.
And it is not the tobacco plant itself that's the enemy; it is how it is grown. The plant picks up the arsenic dusted or sprayed, the lead and mercury in contaminated soil, so with cadmium from batteries today. Systemic pesticides that kill insects, nematodes and mites ensconced in the plant body, unreached by ordinary spraying, persist as residue of high dosage.
By the way, there’s something in the tobacco that changed biology on the concept of what really makes a thing living?. It is the tobacco mosaic virus, Marmor tabaci. The rod shape virus infects tobacco on the field just by rubbing or mere touch of a diseased to healthy plants. And it infects as well all members of the tobacco family - Solanaceae , to which Irish potato, pepper, eggplant, tomato belong. The virus remains dormant for as long as twenty years in the cigarette or filler. And when you touch any of the host plant, the virus resurrects and spreads out in the whole plant and onto neighboring plants. Luckily, scientists assures us the virus has no effect on humans.
But with millions all over the world dying from smoking and its many complications, I believe the virus has mutated countless times - even if biologically it is not considered a true organism. Mutation is still governed by error - and human manipulation in DNA replication. And the virus basically has the DNA structure like all things considered as living. This means the virus - Marmor tabaci - can be subjected to genetic engineering to produce hybrids and mutants.
My favorite twin pipes. Note worn out
mouthpieces.
Really there’s nothing good about smoking, contrary to advertisements. I wonder how one can go a mile for a Camel when he is already exhausted at the start. Didn’t the head cowboy in Marlboro retire too soon? Salem doesn’t make a beautiful landscape. Fortune isn’t something one expects. Fighter did not make us in our time as brave as Buccaneer.
Take the economic side. Our DOH says the government spends every year some P235 billion a year to treat illnesses caused or related to smoking like heart diseases, stroke, emphysema and lung cancer.- possibly COVID-19. And what does the government get in return from the tobacco industry? Only P23 billion, a measly 10 percent of the cost. PDI’s editorial The Puff that Kills, June 1, 2011, reported smoking kills 10 Filipinos every hour, or 243 a day. That’s 87,600 a year – and that’s a conservative estimate. Here is a case of an “old” goose laying the golden eggs, not worth it.
My favorite twin pipes. Note worn out
mouthpieces.
Really there’s nothing good about smoking, contrary to advertisements. I wonder how one can go a mile for a Camel when he is already exhausted at the start. Didn’t the head cowboy in Marlboro retire too soon? Salem doesn’t make a beautiful landscape. Fortune isn’t something one expects. Fighter did not make us in our time as brave as Buccaneer.
Take the economic side. Our DOH says the government spends every year some P235 billion a year to treat illnesses caused or related to smoking like heart diseases, stroke, emphysema and lung cancer.- possibly COVID-19. And what does the government get in return from the tobacco industry? Only P23 billion, a measly 10 percent of the cost. PDI’s editorial The Puff that Kills, June 1, 2011, reported smoking kills 10 Filipinos every hour, or 243 a day. That’s 87,600 a year – and that’s a conservative estimate. Here is a case of an “old” goose laying the golden eggs, not worth it.
One day I was diagnosed of ulcer in the mouth, a wound that doesn't heal. If you can’t eat, imagine the rapid decline in body weight and the various ailments you fall to. My clothes became oversized. I likened myself to a POW in a concentration camp in WWII.
“If you don’t stop smoking, you will die,” my doctor warned. “And soon!” he admonished.
Period. My pipes became museum pieces. A beautiful girl came along. We got married, and have three children. We are now living happily.
Smoking changed my life – when I stopped it completely. ~
The author poses with his students at the UST Graduate School. Author plays "monkey on my back" to illustrate smoking takes great determination to get rid of. Avilon Zoo, Rizal.
“If you don’t stop smoking, you will die,” my doctor warned. “And soon!” he admonished.
Period. My pipes became museum pieces. A beautiful girl came along. We got married, and have three children. We are now living happily.
Smoking changed my life – when I stopped it completely. ~
Is Smoking Linked to COVID-19?
WHO Smoking and COVID-19: Zhao et al.35 analyzed data from 7 studies (1726 patients) and found a statistically significant association between smoking and severity of COVID-19 outcomes amongst patients.
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Annex 1 - Vaping Facts You Need to Know
Vape is an electronic cigarette, also known as e-cigarette among other names, is a handheld battery-powered vaporizer that simulates smoking and provides some of the behavioral aspects of smoking, including the hand-to-mouth action of smoking, but without burning tobacco.
Annex 1 - Vaping Facts You Need to Know
Vape is an electronic cigarette, also known as e-cigarette among other names, is a handheld battery-powered vaporizer that simulates smoking and provides some of the behavioral aspects of smoking, including the hand-to-mouth action of smoking, but without burning tobacco.
Electronic Cigarettes Are Just as Addictive as Traditional Ones.
E-cigarettes heat nicotine (extracted from tobacco), flavorings and other chemicals to create a water vapor that you inhale. Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic.
Both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes contain nicotine, which research suggests may be as addictive as heroin and cocaine. What’s worse is that many e-cigarette users get even more nicotine than they would from a tobacco product — you can buy extra-strength cartridges, which have a higher concentration of nicotine, or you can increase the e-cigarette’s voltage to get a greater hit of the substance.
A New Generation Is Getting Hooked on Nicotine.
Among youth, e-cigarettes are more popular than any traditional tobacco product. In 2015, the U.S. surgeon general reported that e-cigarette use among high school students had increased by 900 percent, and 40 percent of young e-cigarette users had never smoked regular tobacco.
This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes. In 1987, the World Health Assembly passed Resolution WHA40.38, calling for 7 April 1988 to be a "a world no-smoking day." In 1988, Resolution WHA42.19 was passed, calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on 31 May.
Part 2
June 5 is World Environment Day
We are destroying the Earth - our only ship in space.
Let us be the change for a better Earth
Dr Abe V Rotor
2. What and Where is the so-called Good Life? The Good Life is shifting with the transformation of agricultural to industrial economy.
"The earth is in man's hand."
3. The Good Life is synonymous to Affluence. People want goods and services beyond what they actually need. Want leads to luxury - to waste.
4. The world’s population is 7 billion. Another billion will be added in less than 10 years. Runaway population is the mother of human miseries
5. The proliferation of cities, growth of cities to metropolises and megapolises, each with 10 to 20 million people ensconced in cramped condition. Cities breed Marginal communities
“People, people everywhere, but not a kindred to keep," in condominiums, malls, schools, churches, parks, sharing common lifestyles and socio-economic conditions. They are predisposed to common health problems and vulnerabilities from brownouts to food and fuel shortage, force majeure notwithstanding.
Pristine Tropical Rainforest in acrylic by the author.
6. Loss of Natural Environment – loss of productivity, loss of farmlands, and wildlife. Destruction of ecosystems - lakes, rivers, forests, coral reefs, grasslands, etc. Destruction of ecosystems is irreversible.
Realism to Futurism art movement a reminder to conserve our environment.
Paintings by the author posing with family and friends, 2024
8. Wildlife shares with our homes, backyards and farms, transmitting deadly diseases like SARS, HIV-AIDS, Mad-Cow, FMD, Ebola, and Bird Flu which can now infect humans, allergies notwithstanding.
Acid rain in acrylic by the author
9. “Good Life” cradles and nurses obesity and other overweight conditions. Millions of people around the world are obese, wih 34% of Americans in the US obese.
10. Global warming stirs climatic disturbance, changes the face of the earth.
11. Globalization packages the major aspects of human activity – trade, commerce, industry, agriculture, the arts, education, science and technology, politics, religion and the like.
12. . Mélange of races - pooling of genes through inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages produces various mixed lines or “mestizos” - Eurasian, Afro-Asian, Afro-American, Amerasian, and the like. Native genes provide resistance to diseases, adverse conditions of the environment. But will this advantage hold on even as the native gene pools are thinned out?
10. Global warming stirs climatic disturbance, changes the face of the earth.
11. Globalization packages the major aspects of human activity – trade, commerce, industry, agriculture, the arts, education, science and technology, politics, religion and the like.
12. . Mélange of races - pooling of genes through inter-racial and inter-cultural marriages produces various mixed lines or “mestizos” - Eurasian, Afro-Asian, Afro-American, Amerasian, and the like. Native genes provide resistance to diseases, adverse conditions of the environment. But will this advantage hold on even as the native gene pools are thinned out?
Broken rainbow, broken dream - a neo-romanticism painting by the author13. Modern medicine is responsible in reducing mortality and increasing longevity. It has also preserved genetically linked abnormalities; it cradles senility related ailments. It made possible the exchange of organs and tissues through transplantation, and soon tissue cloning. It has changed Evolution that is supposed to cull out the unfit and misfits. Man has Darwinism in his hands.
14. The first scientific breakthrough is the splitting of the atom that led to the development of the atomic bomb as the most potent tool of war as evidenced by its destruction at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the nuclear reactor which still holds the promise of providing incessant energy to mankind. The second scientific breakthrough – Microchip led to the development of the Internet which “shrunk the world into a village.”
16. The third breakthrough in science, Genetic Engineering, changed our concept of life - and life forms. It has enabled man to tinker with life itself. Revolutionary industries Examples: In vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, Human Genome Project (HGP or gene mapping), multiple childbirth, post-menopausal childbirth, DNA mapping, etc. Birth of the prototype human robot – pampered, he lives a very dependent life.
14. The first scientific breakthrough is the splitting of the atom that led to the development of the atomic bomb as the most potent tool of war as evidenced by its destruction at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the nuclear reactor which still holds the promise of providing incessant energy to mankind. The second scientific breakthrough – Microchip led to the development of the Internet which “shrunk the world into a village.”
16. The third breakthrough in science, Genetic Engineering, changed our concept of life - and life forms. It has enabled man to tinker with life itself. Revolutionary industries Examples: In vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, Human Genome Project (HGP or gene mapping), multiple childbirth, post-menopausal childbirth, DNA mapping, etc. Birth of the prototype human robot – pampered, he lives a very dependent life.
Genetically Modified Organisms GMO) carrying the genes of tame
and wild species in acrylic by the author
18. Today’s Green Revolution opened up non-conventional frontiers of production – mariculture, desalination, desert farming, swamp reclamation, aerophonics (rooftop farming), hydroponics, urban farming, organic farming, Green Revolution adapts genetic engineering to produce GMOs and Frankenfoods. We may not be aware, but many of us are eating
View of Earth from the moon, Apollo 8, NASA
genetically modified food (GMF or Frankenfood) everyday – meat, milk, chicken, corn, potato and soya products, and the like mainly from the US. Many food additives and adjuncts are harmful, from salitre in longganiza to pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables, aspartame in fruit juice to MSG in noodles, formalin in fish to dioxin in plastics, bromate in bread to sulfite in sugar, antibiotic residue in meat to radiation in milk.
• Hydroponics or soiless culture makes farming feasible in cramped quarters, and it increases effective area of farming.
. Aeroponics or Multi-storey farming Vertical Farming Farming in the city on high rise buildings
• Post Harvest Technology. is critical to Food Production. PHT bridges production and consumption, farm and market, thus the proliferation of processed goods, supermarket, fast food chains, food irradiation, ready-to-eat packs, etc.
• Hydroponics or soiless culture makes farming feasible in cramped quarters, and it increases effective area of farming.
. Aeroponics or Multi-storey farming Vertical Farming Farming in the city on high rise buildings
• Post Harvest Technology. is critical to Food Production. PHT bridges production and consumption, farm and market, thus the proliferation of processed goods, supermarket, fast food chains, food irradiation, ready-to-eat packs, etc.
The Bomb and the Day After in acrylic by the author
19. Exploration into the depth of the sea and expanse of the Solar System - and beyond. We probe the hadal depth of the ocean. We build cities in space - the Skylab. Soon we will live outside of the confines of our planet earth. Now we aim at conquering another planet, another Solar System to assure continuity of mankind after the demise of the earth.
20. Regional and International Cooperation is key to global cooperation: EU, ASEAN, APEC, CGIAR, ICRISAT, WTO, WHO, UNEP, WFO, FAO, like fighting pandemic diseases – HIV-AIDS, SARS, Dengue, Hepatitis, Bird Flu, etc.
Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, Time
Part 3 - Father's Day June 15, 2025
A Tribute and Reminder of Fathers' Role in these Critical Times
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society
Excerpt of TV interview of Dr Abercio V Rotor Ph.D.
In celebration of International Fathers Day
June 16, 2019 , Manila Hotel
Ulirang Ama Awardees: PM GENERAL GUILLERMO ELEAZAR
and DR ABERCIO V ROTOR
Hi! This was taken during the Ulirang Ama Awarding last June 16 2019 held at The Manila Hotel. My grandpa, Dr. Abercio Rotor, was one of the awardees together with another ulirang ama. I always pretend to play as a super-agent, that is why, when I met NCRPO PM General Guillermo Eleazar, i was so happy! Someday, I want to be like him! And I was also happy because I got to play and spend some time with my grandpa, grandma (photo), tita ann and tito mac, tito carlo, and my cousins; mackie (photo) and markus. It was a very happy Father’s Day. HAVE A GREAT DAY! Mateo Laurencio Vicente M Rotor, 8
29 Ulirang Ama awardees 2019 in 11 sectoral categories pose with Ulirang Ama/Ina Foundation officers after the awarding ceremonies at the Manila Hotel. (Dr Rotor is shown standing, extreme right)
I am honored to receive this prestigious award Ulirang Ama for Education 2019.
While I am an individual named by your Foundation, I must insist of sharing this award with all fathers.
Father's Day brings back sweet memories of the man in particular who was father to me. The inspiration he provided and the moral values he instilled are very much alive in me - in my children and hopefully with their children, ad infinitum. To my late father, “To the world you are a dad; to our family you are the world."
Father's Day bespeaks the unity and continuity of the Filipino in particular that the Family is the central element in our national life. The role of the father carries responsibilities as well as the joys and rewards of fatherhood.
“If the father's responsibility and authority break down, the family is in trouble. If the family is in trouble, the Nation is in trouble.” Said United States VP Gerald Ford 1974 Father of the Year Awardee)
I congratulate the organizers of this yearly event in keeping this beautiful bond of love blooming with kindness and love. This is one of the most important bonds a person can share. It affirms the greatest gift of the Omnipotent Being the sacredness of man-woman union in matrimony and procreation and in establishing the nucleus of society.
Robert Browning has very rightly stated that “Take away love and our earth is a tomb”. God had sent to us love in various forms and one of them is your Father. He is a person who stands by our side no matter what. He loves his children unconditionally and the beauty of the relationship is that he does it all without demanding anything in return.
Before I get carried away with my role of the father and recipient of this award, let me point out that my wife Cecille deserves the same if not, greater recognition, because a father cannot be a father without a mother for their children.The concept of Father's Day is one that celebrates human relationships built on love and family unity while inspired by the love of country and humanity with the moral values instilled by the Supreme Creator.
Again, I thank you for selecting me for this cherished award. I wish all the fathers Happy Fathers' Day. But let us not forget the mothers, the uncles, the aunts, the grandparents, and the children themselves who make it all possible.
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"We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves."—Henry Ward Beecher
Dr Abercio V Rotor Family
Front, seated: Dr Abe V Rotor, Sister Venie Valdez Rotor (religious), spouse Cecilia Rojas Rotor. Standing L-R, Daughter Anna Christina Rotor-Sta Maria (with grandson Markus Andrei), neice Jules Rojas; son Leo Carlo Rotor (with granddaughter Michaela Adrianna); Dr Charisse Mendoza Rotor (MD); Matthew Marlo R Rotor. (Not in the picture is son-in-law Mac Sta Maria who took this photo)
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