JEDDAH, 28 November 2006 — The 12th Gulf Symposium Against Smoking will start today in Riyadh.
The two-day conference, entitled “The Role of Governmental and Private Organizations in Supporting the Agreement of Anti-Smoking Program,” will discuss the economics of tobacco.
Topics like the planting, manufacturing and importing of tobacco in Gulf countries will be discussed under the supervision of the ministries of commerce, industry and agriculture.
After discussing where and how tobacco is manufactured and sold, the Health Ministry and the Education Ministry will warn smokers about the dangers of smoking. The role of many organizations including the Shoura Council in supporting the agreements of the anti-smoking program will be discussed in order to build up systems that could work for all sectors.
Representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Executive Office for Health Ministers for Gulf Council Countries (GCC) will be present to make leading speeches at the symposium.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Baddah, general supervisor of the anti-smoking program at the Ministry of Health, revealed new statistics on smoking that showed that more than SR5 billion is annually spent on smoking 40,000 tons of tobacco.
Saudi Arabia is ranked as the 23rd highest tobacco consuming country in the world, according to the same statistics. Saudi smokers go through an average of 15 billion cigarettes yearly.
He added that smoking is a major cause of many diseases. Lung cancer is mainly a result of smoking. There are 2,350 smokers suffering of lung cancer, according to the National Record for Tumors, not to mention mouth and bladder cancers.
There are more than 600,000 women smokers in Saudi Arabia, most of them teenagers, according to Dr. Al-Baddah.
