RIYADH: The Kingdom, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), has lined up a series of programs through its 20 health regions to observe “World No-Tobacco Day” today.
Deputy Governor Prince Abdulaziz Al-Khobairi will inaugurate a weeklong program to observe the day in Makkah.
Al-Khobairi will launch the program at the Ministry of Education in order to reach students, said Dr. Sameer Al-Sabban, supervisor general of the antismoking campaign in Makkah province.
He added that a weeklong exhibition would also be inaugurated today at the city’s Hijaz Mall.
Al-Sabban, who is a consultant of family and community medicine at the Ministry of Health, said the ministry has four antismoking clinics in Makkah that serve both men and women.
“Around 90 percent of those who have attended the clinics have successfully quit smoking,” he said. He added that the program this year is focusing on students with the hope of reducing the number of new smokers.
WHO is marking the day this year under the theme “Pictorial Health Warnings,” which are printed on the packaging of tobacco products.
Dr. Khaled Al-Zahrani, assistant deputy minister for preventive medicine, will flag off the program in Riyadh from Sahara Mall. “From Sunday, the mall will be made a no-smoking zone for the benefit of all visitors,” said Dr. Majid Al-Muneef, general supervisor of the Tobacco Control Program at the ministry.
A national symposium on the hazards of smoking will be held at Amal Hospital tomorrow.
Al-Muneef said schools in the Kingdom have been requested to organize programs that would suit their needs and environment.
Identifying the challenges ahead, Dr. Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO regional director, said, “The tobacco industry is facing bans on tobacco promotion and they are now using packaging to attract new smokers, particularly the youth and women. We should take all necessary action to stop that.”
A total 23 countries in the world now include health warnings on tobacco with messages reaching more than 700 million people. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products are found in Egypt, Jordan, Iran and Djibouti.
Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recently adopted guidelines for the packaging and labeling of tobacco products. The guidelines recommend large graphic health warnings to be displayed on at least 50 percent of the principal display area of any tobacco product’s packaging. More than 160 countries are now party to the convention and legally bound to implement its measures, including pictorial health warnings.
“Today we call upon all countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to adopt pictorial health warnings, not only for cigarettes but for all tobacco products including shisha,” Jezairy said.
Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half of the people that smoke today — that is about 650 million people — will eventually be killed by tobacco.
The number of smokers in Saudi Arabia has increased to six million, including 600,000 women, said Naif Al-Saeed, director of the Charitable Society to Combat Smoking in Al-Ahsa province. Around 45 percent of women smokers in the Kingdom are in the Eastern Province. There are also 772,000 teenage smokers, including intermediate and secondary school students.
Some 42,000 tons of tobacco are imported annually for local consumption, an indication of the high volume of cigarettes consumed in the Kingdom.
