MAKKAH, 24 January 2005 — An estimated 840,000 of the three million pilgrims this year are smokers, according to Dr. Abdullah Al-Badah, director general of medical research and the director of the national anti-smoking program at the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Al-Badah, who headed for the third consecutive year the Health Ministry’s Anti-Tobacco Awareness Campaign in Haj (MAACH), said: “It is a rough estimation and it should vary according to the country, gender, age and culture.”
For example, the rate of male smoker in Egypt is between 40-60 percent while it’s between 10-15 percent among women. In Lebanon the percentage for female smokers rises to 40 percent. “So, it not very accurate to give an absolute estimation,” Dr. Al-Badah said.
“We continued our campaign against this social evil this year. It was a big one,” Dr. Al-Badah said.
“During this year’s campaign, we had sent out to the pilgrims over 12 million anti-smoking warning messages. We used for this purpose, Saudi Arabian Airlines’ inflight magazine Ahlan wa Sahlan hoping these message reach the 900,000 pilgrims supposed to travel on Saudia to the holy lands. These messages were sent in eight major languages spoken by pilgrims.
“Also we used 6 million packets of free meal gift donated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd to put our anti-smoking warning labels on them,” Dr. Al-Badah said.
