MoH warns companies promoting tobacco use - Health Minister ensures better strategies to protect the people from excessive tobacco use

Health Minister Sadiq Al Shehabi had warned the companies promoting the use of tobacco through advertisements and motivating the users in the Kingdom to increase their consumption. Speaking at the conference held yesterday in connection with 'World Tobacco Day' celebration, Mr. Al Shehabi affirmed that the promotion of tobacco products through media has been banned by the ministry and necessary measures will be taken against the companies violating the regulations. “The excessive use of tobacco is killing around 6 million people every year. This is mostly faced by the Eastern Mediterranean region in particular and according to the statistics, 30 per cent of the smokers are men and 5 per cent are women,“ he said. He ensured better strategies to protect the present and future generations in the Kingdom from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to its smoke. The National Anti-Smoking Commission, headed by Mr. Al Shehabi, to combat smoking and tobacco types has adopted anti smoking strategy 'MPOWER', a policy package to reverse the tobacco epidemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as the basic effort to fight the use of tobacco products in the Kingdom. “The ministry is working with partners including the Ministry of Education (MoE), Municipal Councils and Shisha (water pipe) Cafes to promote awareness about the harmful effects of smoking.“ He cited that the Ministry is using the tobacco control measures in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to smoke. The ministry had opened clinics and health centres since 2004 in order to combat the health issues related to smoking. The preparations for a new health centre is underway. “The last survey reports show great difference in the percentage of people using tobacco, 2010 (21 per cent) In 2011 (31 per cent) and 2012 (28 per cent). We hope that coming year the percentage will very less compared to the other years,“ he added.