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WAM CAIRO, Oct. 25th, 2009: Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean honored the UAE's Health Ministry for its efforts to combat smoking.
This came at a cancer control event held in Cairo in celebration of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month in presence of the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control, Nancy Brinker.
The UAE was among other countries honored by WHO for their efforts to enforce no-smoking laws and anti-tobacco regulations including the federal anti-tobacco law and the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, says Attache at the UAE Embassy in Cairo Khaled Al-Shehhi who represented the UAE to the event.
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The dangers of tobacco smoking are well documented, its effects seen in cancer wards around the world. . . .
Authorities in Sharjah are now offering Dh10,000 to smokers to kick their filthy and dangerous habit.
While the measure should be applauded, it's hard to believe that smokers should be rewarded for doing something that is simple common sense to non-smokers.
What is actually needed is a comprehensive policy aimed at stamping out tobacco usage.
It's a month when one can learn to eat healthy, exercise, connect with oneself and even quit smoking. Fasting during Ramadan, as experts put it, can help do away with unhealthy habits for a better life. . . .
Smokers need to wait for the sun to set before they can light up a cigarette. Those observing fast have to cut down the number of times they smoke and they will feel more energetic.
“A person manipulates his conduct during this month to abide by the rules of the religion. So a smoker will have to learn to manage his day differently, without the cigarettes. Thus if a person needs to change, he will be able to change,” said Dr. Ahmed Suliman, a volunteer scholar at the Department of Islamic Affairs in Dubai.
Harmony, tolerance and introspection are important virtues Muslims must uphold during the holy month.
A UAE delegation was engaged in the multilateral negotiations, as part of the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on ‘Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.’ The protocol is being deliberated under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
The UAE delegation, led by Faisal Ali Al Mansouri, UAE Revenue Administration Director and Azza Mohammed Al Suweidi, Chief of Taxation in the UAE Ministry of Finance, included representatives of the UAE Ministry of Health, the UAE Federal Committee of Customs and representatives of customs at Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Commenting on the occasion, Faisal Ali Al Mansouri said, “The UAE pledges firm support to the coordinated global effort against illicit trade in tobacco products. The negotiations set the pace for measures to control the supply chain of tobacco, enhance effectiveness of regulatory agencies and safeguard public health.”
Nearly 32 per cent of the over 10,000 smokers registered with smoking cessation clinics under the Ministry of Health (MoH) have successfully given up smoking, while 10,000 more smokers have pledged to quit the habit this year as part of a nationwide anti-tobacco campaign.
Providing details to Khaleej Times, Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, who heads the National Tobacco Control Committee, said 10,549 smokers had enrolled with five smoking cessation clinics under MoH ever since they were set up.
"So far, 3,370 of them have successfully quit smoking. This reveals that we are above the international standards in terms of success rate of smoking cessation clinics."
Dubai: More than 10,000 people pledged to stop smoking on World No Tobacco Day last Sunday and pledges are still coming in although the day has passed, a senior doctor said.
"It has been a successful initiative by all standards," said Dr Wedad Al Maidour, Head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, Ministry of Health, in a statement.
Besides launching the campaign in labour accommodations, shopping malls, in schools, to housewives and passive smokers, it also went online on Facebook and Twitter, said Dr Prem Jagyasi, managing director of ExHealth, and one of the coordinators of the programme.
He said the response has been fantastic though it is being held for the first time in the UAE and that there are 450 Facebook members promoting the anti-smoking campaign.
As manufacturers try to divert attention from the ill-effects of the product through advertising, countries are fighting back, making it mandatory that tobacco packages graphically show its dangers. It is here that the policies adopted by countries like the UAE gain importance.
The UAE has banned smoking in public places and is planning an increase in the price of cigarettes, while unifying the tobacco-control policies in the UAE. A six-week long No Tobacco Campaign in the country is seeking to garner a minimum of 10,000 pledges against the use of tobacco.
Effective warnings on tobacco packets, especially with pictures can be a cheap and, at the same time, effective strategy to reduce the attraction of tobacco for those who are not yet addicted and to motivate users to quit. But the question here is, why not ban tobacco, which is a cash crop and the only legal consumer product that can kill when used exactly as the producer intends?
Health experts have raised serious concerns about the growing number of women smoking shisha.
They said they are seeing more and more cases of women with respiratory disorders because of the habit and urged smokers - especially those who are pregnant - to give up 'hubbly bubbly', as shisha is commonly known.
The call comes as the UAE prepares for 'World No Tobacco Day' on May 31, when people are being encouraged to stop smoking for 24 hours.
Many smokers think shisha is healthier than cigarettes, but the UAE Ministry of Health said an hour of shisha was equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes.
Tobacco products in the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have to undergo content tests before they can go on sale, as part of the new requirements on tobacco in the region, Gulf News has learnt.
Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, told Gulf News the executive office of GCC ministers would soon require testing of tobacco products to ensure the declaration of ingredients, such as tar and nicotine, was correct.
"A laboratory in Jordan will take samples and test them before they can go on sale. We have to make sure that the content labelling is correct," she said.
The Ministry of Health launched a national anti-smoking campaign yesterday with a lofty goal: to get at least 10,000 people to promise to give up the deadly habit for at least a day.
As part of the six-week campaign, the ministry will team up with several companies, malls and educational institutions to highlight the dangers of smoking. UAE residents can log on to www.notobaccocampaign.com or send an SMS by typing the word "pledge" to 6448 to register. A pledge is a promise to not smoke on May 31, World No Tobacco Day.
The winning entry in a poster competition will be the official MoH sign on all cigarette packets in the GCC, according to WAM, the government news agency.
An exhibition of the top posters will be shown around the UAE next month.
My wife smokes cigarettes. I wish she didn't. She wishes she didn't. But she does, and she's a nicotine addict.
She smokes menthol cigarettes. . . .
When I say that she can smoke here relatively guilt free, I mean it.
In Canada, or in Britain and Australia for that matter, the cigarette packets are adorned by graphic images of blackened teeth and gums, cancerous lungs and brain tumours. One series of the warnings featured a drooping cigarette along with the proviso that smoking caused impotency. . . .
.
Now the UAE is looking at introducing a ban on public cigarette advertising, and is also looking at introducing graphic images on packaging.
Good! . . .
Public awareness and health campaigns help. And graphic images help.
But the real solution is hiking the price to make it so unaffordable that people will have a financial benefit to stop. Unless, of course, they're nicotine addicts. Like my wife.
Starting September, tobacco products in the UAE will carry a message and a warning that will be hard to ignore.
Graphics of blackened lungs and a haemorrhage-impacted brain, among others, will provide stark warnings about the dangers on cigarette packs sold in the country, following in the footsteps of the UK, Canada and Brazil.
Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, told Gulf News the World Health Organisation (WHO) donated the pictures to the UAE to help with its tobacco control efforts.
"We have received donation of pictures from the WHO. Six months from now, they will be on cigarette packs," she said.
The Federal National Council on Tuesday passed a federal bill banning the sale of tobacco or its products to people under the age of 18.
The legislation also prohibits smoking while driving if a child aged less than 12 years is in the vehicle.
The bill, which provides for jail penalties and fines of up to Dh1 million, was passed after a lengthy debate.
The cultivation of tobacco and its products will also be banned, although the bill grants tobacco growers and producers a grace period -- to be determined by the Health Ministry and included in a bylaw -- to close down their businesses.
Council members demanded that these farms be given two years to do so.
The Federal National Council yesterday endorsed a far-reaching proposal to restrict smoking across the Emirates and control how tobacco products are marketed.
It would mean major changes to the habits and social lives of smokers and was welcomed by health care professionals.
Smoking would be prohibited in most closed public spaces, in cars with passengers aged under 12 and anywhere in hospitals, mosques, educational institutions and sport facilities.
Many details were left out. For example, authorities would be allowed to allocate areas within some public premises for smoking, but the rules for smoking rooms were left to an appendix to be released after the law is approved.
The Supreme Council, which is made up of the rulers of the seven emirates, must approve the ban.