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Smoking takes toll in Saudi 

The Saudi Charitable Society to Combat Smoking said on its website that 13,544 deaths in Saudi Arabia this year are caused by cigarette smoking, Arab News has reported. The charitable society is holding the campaign in cooperation with Arab Volunteering World to create awareness among the public on the danger of smoking in order to help them quit the unhealthy habit during the fasting month of Ramadan.

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Smoking caused 13,544 deaths so far this year 

Cigarette smoking was the main reason behind the death of 3.38 million people worldwide, including 13,544 in Saudi Arabia this year, according to statistics published by the Saudi Charitable Society to Combat Smoking on its website.

The publication of the alarming statistics coincides with a major electronic campaign launched by Arab Volunteering World on its website. The campaign has been supported by the Saudi charity.

"Cigarette smoking is expected to kill 500 million people by 2030," said Adel bin Saad Al-Khofi, supervisor of the campaign, quoting a joint report issued by the World Health Organization and World Bank in August 2000.

"About 70 percent of these deaths are expected in the Arab world as a result of direct or passive smoking that affects wives, children and friends of a smoker," Al-Khofi said.

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Majority of Muslim world begins fasting month, except for Iraqi, Lebanese Shiites and Iran  

Most of the Muslim Mideast began the first day of Ramadan on Monday, but Iraqi Shiites, some Lebanese Shiites and Iran will start observing the holy month of fasting on Tuesday. . . . .

Ramadan can last either 29 or 30 days, depending on when the first moon of the next lunar month is sighted. During the month, Muslims are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex in order to focus on spiritual introspection.

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200 per cent tobacco tax proposed 

Gulf states will study a proposal next week to raise the customs duties charged on tobacco imports to 200 per cent from 100pc, an executive at the UAE Federal Customs Authority said.

Prices for cigarettes in the Gulf are cheap relative to global standards, costing between four dirhams (400 fils) and seven dirhams (700 fils) per box.

The GCC customs union committee, which is set to meet in Riyadh on Sunday, will discuss whether to double the levy on cigarettes

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Graphic warnings on tobacco products soon  

QATAR will impose stronger warnings on all tobacco products soon. According to sources, all GCC countries will follow the practice of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’ Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that they signed earlier this year.

“Qatar is working closely with the other GCC countries to work out the details, including customs, tax and labeling and might be able to implement the convention in early 2009,” sources said.

Bahrain announced on Tuesday that tobacco firms would be forced to print pictures of damaged organs, such as lungs and hearts, on cigarette packs in order to get entry into the GCC market. They would also have to make sure that 50 to 30% of a pack bear a larger warning statement on smoking hazards.

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• Tobacco curbs hit Bidi exports  

The bidi export market is seeing a downward trend and confusion prevails among bidi exporters about the actual figures. But exporters present a unanimous front on the reasons for the fall. The restrictions on tobacco the world over are seen as the chief reason for the exporters' woes.

Low-cost cigarettes seem to be the other villains. Bidi exporters are slowly losing hold over the Middle East, which has been the mainstay for many companies, like Nimex Trading Corporation. “The Middle East accounts for about 90% of our exports,” says Nimex proprietor Parvez A Khatri. The Asian population in these countries constitutes the major clientele for bidis. However, cigarette manufacturers in Bangladesh who are supplying their wares at cheap rates, are beginning to eat into their markets.

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• Cigarette sales in GCC down 12% due to smoking ban  

Ban on smoking in public places and selling tobacco to people under 20 have cut sales of cigarettes in the GCC by 12 per cent, according to industry experts.

Total sales across the region are about 60 billion cigarettes a year and Saudi Arabia is the largest market with an annual total of 12 billion. Small- and medium-sized tobacco manufacturers expect their business volume to decline further due to increased taxes and restrictions in regional markets.

But global giants such as British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International (PMI), which dominate the market, recorded an increased sales in the first quarter of 2008 mainly due to higher turnover in East Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Eema).

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Smoking on the rise in absence of law 

DUBAI -- The rate of smoking is increasing in all GCC countries due to the absence of an anti-tobacco law, said a senior health official yesterday.

Dr Abdullah Al Badah, Supervisor-General, Tobacco Control Programme for the AGCC for Saudi Arabia, revealing details of the recently carried out Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), said that 80 per cent of the youth in the GCC favour a blanket ban on smoking while shisha was the most preferred form of tobacco.

The UAE GYTS on youth aged between 13 and15 years, includes data on prevalence of cigarette and other tobacco use as well as information on five determinants of tobacco use: access/availability and price, environmental tobacco smoke exposure (ETS), cessation, media and advertising, and school curriculum.

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Cigarette Packs May Display More Warnings In Gulf Cooperation Council Countries 

Cigarette companies may have to design new packets to enter the rich oil exporting Arab countries.

According to a proposal which the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries are in the process of finalizing, all cigarette packets must have 50 per cent of the packaging indicating statutory health warning with a mandatory font set to 14 on the surface.

Dr.Mariam Al Jalahma, the Assistant Undersecretary of public health and primary care at the Bahrain Ministry of Health told AHN Media on Tuesday, "The proposal is being studied by the GCC Council for Anti Smoking which is yet to be finalized. All tobacco companies supplying their products to the region will have 18 months to change their look."

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• Middle East smokers develop lung disease at younger age 

People in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries are developing lung disease at a younger age and the trend is set to worsen, researchers warned.

The 46-country Greatest International Antibiotic Trial (Giant) studied the prevalence of acute exacerbate chronic bronchitis (AECB), a form of lung disease, and the effectiveness of Bayer Schering Pharma's antibiotic in treating it.

It found a majority of the 4,300 subjects in the Middle East were reporting the disease at 48.5 years old, the youngest compared to other regions.

The average age for lung disease in Latin America was 63.1 years, followed by Europe at 60.5 and Asia-Pacific with 57.1 years. . . .

He warned the outlook in the Middle East was grim: "What is happening here is what has happened in the US and Europe 20 years ago. There are more women smokers [and] it's going to get worse if nothing changes."

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Troops may get drug felon's stogies 

Cigar-smoking Michigan military people in the Middle East may soon be puffing away at seized stogies, courtesy of the Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Drug officers seized 1,500 hand-wrapped cigars during a traffic stop of a convicted drug felon in January along M-59 in eastern Oakland County. The cigars, which include counterfeit copies of much-coveted and embargoed Cuban cigars, were obtained under forfeiture laws. Now Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard hopes to ship them off to Michigan troops.

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• Smoke alarm from Afghanistan to Morocco 

Under WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), the 21 Member States of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, are stepping up tobacco-control efforts. The Initiative was launched in 1998 and WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which is now one of the most widely supported treaties in the history of the United Nations, entered into force in 2005.

The moves can’t come soon enough, according to Dr Fatimah El-Awa, the regional adviser for the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO’s Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which is based in Cairo.

“When we talk about tobacco, some people still look at us and laugh, saying, ‘Well, people are starving and dying from poverty and you’re talking about tobacco.’ But they don’t understand that tobacco contributes to poverty.”

With stronger tobacco control policies, including smoking bans expanding in public areas like restaurants in more parts of the United States of America (USA) and Europe, cigarette manufacturers are dumping their toxic merchandise in other parts of the world such as the Eastern Mediterranean Region, making tobacco control measures even more imperative, says El-Awa. The region comprises 21 Member States, from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in north Africa, through the Gulf countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the rest of the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan in south Asia. It also includes Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan in sub-Saharan Africa.

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S.Korea's KT&G says wins $476 mln cigarettes order  

KT&G Corp, South Korea's top tobacco company, said on Monday it had agreed to sell 450.7 billion won ($476.3 million) worth of cigarettes to Alokozay International Limited.

KT&G said in a filing to the Korea Exchange that those cigarettes would be sold in the Middle East and Russia.

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Impartial health advice available in convenient shopping mall locations across the GCC 

With the ban on smoking spreading swiftly throughout the GCC – there is no better time than the present to give up smoking. As a first ever for the region, the UK’s number one health and beauty store responds to those who have health questions and require immediate and impartial professional advice through the new 'Ask Your Boots Pharmacists' campaign unveiled this week. Whether your reasons for quitting smoking are to improve your heart and lung health, to look and feel better or to protect those around you from the harmful effects of cigarette smoke, this campaign aims to encoura

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Huge illegal cigarette haul in Durban 

About R100-million worth of counterfeit cigarettes were seized by police and port security at the Durban harbour on Thursday.

Head of Durban Harbour security and protection services Superintendent Thembakazi Mase said about 4 400 boxes of Chelsea cigarettes were found in four containers and 2 100 boxes of Chicago cigarettes were found in two other containers. Each box contained 50 cartons of cigarettes. . . .

She said the cigarettes were being smuggled into South Africa from the Middle East, Unite Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

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