Hanouf Al-Ali, a pharmacist from the Ministry of Health, was reading Al-Muneef’s speech at the concluding session of a three-day workshop held for women in Riyadh.
The participants of the program were from Riyadh, Al-Qassim, Al-Jouf, Hail and the Eastern Province.
“The participants should approach women in an effective manner to convince them of the dangers of smoking,” Al-Muneef told the participants at the workshop.
He also thanked the King Saud University for its support in carrying out the anti-smoking program of the ministry in an effective way.
The workshop was organized by the Directorate General of Training and Scholarship of the Ministry of Health.
Manal Shams, who spoke about passive smoking, said in her presentation that women are greatly affected by passive smoking.
“It is up to women to tell smokers about the dangers of passive smoking.”
She revealed 30 percent of young people are passive smokers in their own homes and 65 percent of teenage smokers have a desire to quit smoking.
According to a recent study, the number of young smokers aged 13 to 15 in the Kingdom has reduced from 19.3 percent (of the total number of smokers) to 14.9 percent during the past three years due to the awareness campaign carried out by the ministry.
There are some 7 million smokers in the Kingdom, which includes nearly 1.1 million women. Around 45 percent of women smokers in the Kingdom are from the Eastern Province.
Those interested in giving up smoking can avail themselves of the facilities and expertise available at the 55 anti-smoking clinics spread throughout the Kingdom. There are six such clinics in Riyadh and one of them is exclusively for women.
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 the people that smoke today - about 650 million people - will eventually be killed by tobacco.
Some 42,000 tons of tobacco are imported annually for local consumption, an indication of the high volume of cigarettes consumed in the Kingdom.
“Health warnings on packets of cigarettes are a powerful and inexpensive way to show visually the harmful effects of tobacco use. Health warnings that include images of the harmful effects of tobacco can be very powerful in encouraging smokers to quit,” Al-Muneef said.
“Visual warnings on tobacco products are also helpful in reducing the attractiveness of tobacco packaging. Tobacco companies spend millions of dollars to make tobacco products attractive to the public. They use packaging as an important tool to appeal to, and attract, new customers, while distracting consumers from the harsh reality of how tobacco destroys health.”
A total of 23 countries in the world now include visual health warnings, with messages reaching more than 700 million people. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, visual health warnings on the packaging of tobacco products are found in Egypt, Jordan, Iran and Djibouti.
The Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recently adopted guidelines for the packaging and labeling of tobacco products which recommended 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, including the Kingdom, are now party to the Convention and legally bound to implement its measures, including health warnings.
