Freshmen of the State University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics “Nicolae Testemitanu” staged a flashmob meeting to sensitize the people to the noxious effects of smoking in connection with World No Tobacco Day that is marked on May 31. The young people improvised a smoldering cigarette and the effects of smoke on active smokers and on nonsmokers, IPN reports.

Student Nicolae Demenciuc said the future doctors hope their message to give up smoking will reach every smoker. “We want to live in a healthy society and thus want to remind how dangerous smoking is. If those who smoke decide to continue such a lifestyle, they should at least not smoke in public places and to endanger the lives of other persons too,” he stated.

Student Alina Nicorici noted that they chose to stage such an event because it is illustrative and to everyone’s understanding and shows the damage caused by smoking, including death.

Within a project, the students intend to obtain equipment from the Ministry of Health to perform tests in public places and in closed places with many smokers so as to analyze the state of the lungs of those who smoke and of the passive smokers and show in practice the harmful effects of smoking, and to motivate the smokers to give up.

According to the National Public Health Center, the number of diseases caused by smoking tobacco in Moldova is 2.3 times higher than the European average, with about half of the smokers dying prematurely (by 14 years on average). About 4,500 persons die annually in Moldova from diseases associated with smoking.