RIYADH, 29 October 2005 — Pilgrims from around the globe gathering at the Grand Mosque in Makkah for the end of Ramadan will be the first to take part in the Kingdom’s antismoking campaign in the holy city.
“Some 60 young people have taken up positions at the Grand Mosque to increase awareness about the health risks caused by the nasty habit among worshippers who come from the four corners of the Earth,” said Dr. Sameer Al-Sabban, a consultant of family and community medicine at the Ministry of Health. “It’s a pity to note that all the smokers gather at the back of the Haram to puff on their cigarettes, which is hazardous to the holy city’s environment.”
The young monitors will be on the lookout for smokers visiting the holy city and offer them miswak tooth-cleaning sticks and pamphlets with illustrations about smoking hazards designed to transcend language barriers.
The ministry has set up five antismoking clinics open to men and women smokers in the holy city as part of the campaign. Three of them are located in the Al-Nour, Hira and King Abdul Aziz hospitals; one at the Antismoking Unit headquarters in Makkah; and the other at a building close to the Haram.
Dr. Sabban, who heads Makkah’s Antismoking Unit, noted that of the 5 million annual smoking-related deaths, 1 million are Muslims, in large part because of ignorance about the hazards of smoking. Sabban told Arab News that smokers not only endanger themselves, but they also contribute to health problems in nonsmokers subjected to secondhand smoke. He said Ramadan is an excellent time for smokers to quit and discontinue their habit for their own sakes.
A consort of Saudi physicians and psychiatrists are helping with the campaign while a host of well known websites are promoting the campaign.
The Kingdom signed an antitobacco agreement in May 2005. Saudi Arabia ranks fourth internationally in tobacco imports and consumption. More than 15 billion cigarettes, worth $168 million, are smoked in Saudi Arabia each year, according to GCC Health Ministers Council statistics.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Bideihi, head of the Saudi Health Ministry’s antismoking efforts, noted that some 28.9 million people have died due to tobacco-related diseases. Last year, he said, the Kingdom imported 41,000 tons of tobacco with a value of SR1.45 billion for local consumption, with a portion for those sales exported by expatriate workers to their home countries because of low prices here.
Dr. Bideihi said most people start smoking when they are young to fit into to the crowd and to show maturity by emulating a parent’s habit. Others use it as a stress relief for the challenges of adolescence. It is estimated that more than 600,000 students under age 22 smoke in Saudi Arabia, prompting the Kingdom to launch a national antismoking campaign at schools to mark World No Tobacco Day 2005.
