To mark World No Tobacco Day, leading pulmonology specialists in the Dominican Republic have issued urgent warnings about the severe public health risks of tobacco and nicotine use, particularly for adolescent populations, alongside rolling out new community initiatives to expand smoke-free public spaces across the country.
Maribel Jorge, president of the Dominican Society of Pulmonology and Chest Surgery, outlined the specific harms of early nicotine exposure in an official press statement. Unlike fully developed adult brains, adolescent brains are uniquely vulnerable to nicotine’s impact: early use permanently disrupts healthy neurodevelopment, drastically raises the likelihood of lifelong addiction, and lays the groundwork for a wide range of life-altering chronic conditions. Jorge emphasized that consistent nicotine and tobacco use is directly linked to elevated rates of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, and multiple forms of cancer.
Citing global data from the World Health Organization (WHO), Jorge reminded the public that tobacco use remains one of the deadliest preventable public health threats worldwide. The WHO estimates tobacco use claims more than 7 million lives annually, with roughly 1.6 million of those deaths occurring among non-smokers who suffer from exposure to toxic secondhand smoke. Domestically, Jorge confirmed tobacco smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the Dominican Republic. Beyond these primary conditions, regular tobacco consumption worsens pre-existing conditions such as asthma, diminishes overall lung capacity, weakens immune response to infections, and causes a steep, measurable decline in quality of life for regular users.
Jorge stressed that the global public health community faces an evolving threat from tobacco and nicotine industries, which constantly redesign, rebrand, and market their products to hook new young consumers – specifically targeting children, adolescents, and young women. In alignment with this year’s WHO World No Tobacco Day campaign focused on exposing industry manipulation, the Dominican Society of Pulmonology has joined the global effort to raise public awareness of these deceptive tactics and reduce nicotine and tobacco addiction across the country. Current data shows roughly 20% of the Dominican population still uses tobacco products, and Jorge noted that the public health challenge extends far beyond combustible cigarettes: nicotine addiction itself, regardless of product type, remains a core ongoing threat.
To address this crisis, Jorge has called on national government authorities and municipal leaders across the Dominican Republic to strengthen three core lines of defense: expanded public prevention outreach, stricter regulatory controls on tobacco product sales and marketing, and broader public education campaigns about the risks of nicotine use. These policy efforts, she argued, are critical to cutting overall consumption rates and protecting the public’s respiratory health for current and future generations.
As a concrete step toward advancing this goal, the Dominican Society of Pulmonology partnered with municipal leaders in Higüey, a city in the Dominican Republic’s La Altagracia province, to launch the country’s first smoke-free public park, alongside inaugurating a symbolic ‘Blue Bench’ in the city’s Health Park. The project was developed in collaboration with Higüey Mayor Karina Aristy, and backed by an official resolution from the Higüey City Council to formalize the park’s smoke-free status.
During the inauguration event, Dr. Jorge explained that the Blue Bench serves as a public symbol of the country’s growing commitment to creating smoke-free public spaces, and upholding every citizen’s fundamental right to breathe clean, toxin-free air. The initiative is intended to serve as a model for other Dominican municipalities to develop their own smoke-free public park programs across the country.