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• No smoking rule enforced 

The third Asian Indoor Games (AIG), to be held in Viet Nam next Thursday, will be a non-smoking Games.

The events' organising board and World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Viet Nam branch office signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the capital yesterday to make this AIG the third one to be non-smoking.

Organisers and the WHO have agreed that cigarette smoking and sports do not belong together; tobacco in any form is not allowed at the events.

No smoking at the event is in alignment with government regulations banning of smoking in public places. Tobacco advertisements and tobacco company sponsors are also not allowed at the events.

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• VIETNAM: Anti-Smoking Drive Fails to Curb Male Tobacco Abuse 

In Vietnamese tobacco is called 'thouc la', which means 'medicinal leaves'. Given a reported 40,000 die each year from lung cancer, it is not the most apposite name. . . .

Huong typifies the male-smoking population of Vietnam, considered one of the biggest in the world: 56 percent of the country's estimated 86 million population. The figure could be higher, said health officials who spoke with IPS. China, Malaysia and Laos all record higher figures, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"It's a huge burden to the health system," Dr Nguyen Tuan Lam of the Tobacco Free Initiative of WHO told IPS in a telephone interview. He believes the official number of lung cancer deaths is massively underreported, saying it could be closer to 70,000. Compare this figure with the incidence of traffic accidents, often called a "hidden epidemic" in the motorcycle-riding South-east Asian country, which accounted for a comparatively lower 12,000 deaths in 2008.

Compared to men, there are extremely few female smokers in Vietnam. In fact, the communist nation has one of the lowest female smoking rates in the world at 2.1 percent of the population.

"The attitude here is that only naughty girls smoke. It's not ladylike and it's not nice," said Lam.

Since Vietnam ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in December 2004, it has banned all forms of advertising, increased taxes on cigarettes and last year added larger warning labels to packaging.

In late August government announced that starting Jan. 1, 2010, smoking would be prohibited in public places

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• Northern tourist city to ban smoking 

Northern tourist town Ha Long City will tell its smokers to butt out, particularly in public areas. Ha Long will become the country’s second smoke-free city thanks to a project launched on September 26 by U.S.-based Campaign for Tobacco - Free Kids in the city.

Ha Long, in northern Quang Ninh Province, is home to UNESCO-listed Ha Long Bay, one of the major tourist destinations in northern Vietnam.

The US$284,500 project is being run by the U.S. organization and the Vietnam Union of Sciences and Technology Associations

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• Tobacco boss jailed 

The former chairman of a tobacco manufacturer has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for bribery and fraud relating to the smuggling of cigarettes to the mainland. Lu Dayong - from Nanyang Brothers Tobacco - was earlier found guilty in the district court. He failed to turn up for trial - and was sentenced in his absence. The court heard that Nanyang Brothers supplied "Double Happiness" cigarettes to two firms, which smuggled them to the mainland through third countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam.

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• Toothless smoking ban needs enforcement 

"I can’t stand this anymore. They are being cruel not just to me, but also to my baby," said 25-year old Nguyen Thu Trang.

This scene is all too common, playing out in public places all over Viet Nam.

A number of smoking bans have been passed by the Government and relevant ministries. However these bans dictate neither a specific punishment nor which authorities are responsible for punishing infractions, said Nguyen Ba Bo, a judge of the Central Military Court.

In May 2007, the Prime Minister released a directive which banned smoking in public places like schools, health centres/hospitals, production centres, public transportation, libraries, bus stations, railway stations, airports, ports and indoor entertainment centres. . . .

However, none of these documents suggest how and who should fine the violators, said Bo.

Directive No 45, which was signed by the Prime Minister, is the only legal document which stipulates that fines between VND50,000-100,000 will be levied on people who smoke in public places.

The Government and relevant agencies need to release practical legal documents which regulate specific punishments and the agencies responsible for enforcing them, said Pham Hoang Anh, director of the HealthBridge Organisation’s representative office.

They release the documents but seem not to care if they are implemented in an effective way, said Hoang Anh.

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• Women: Cigarette smoking to lose weight? 

The cigarette smoking habit in female university female students has reached the high rate of 5.3 percent, a recent survey says.

The survey carried out by HealthBride of Canada of nearly 2,000 female participants under 25 in Hanoi and Thai Binh provinces shows that the rate is lower in high school and elementary schools.

Medical school students do not have much more knowledge than other students about the damage smoking causes to health, said the survey. . . .

Almost all women think smoking is a bad habit, but many say smoking helps them lose weight and relieve stress. Others say smoking is not harmful because they smoke cigarettes for females.

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• Cigarette smuggling on the rise in HCMC 

Cigarette smuggling in the city is increasing with instances of smugglers even attacking anti-smuggling forces, the market watchdog in the city has reported.

Over the last six months, market watchdog division 5B in District 5 has seized more than 60,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes and imposed penalties against smugglers in 54 cases.

The division is in charge of the area that hosts the city's largest cigarette trading spot - the eponymous market on Hoc Lac Street- where both certified and illegal cigarettes are frequently transacted.

Head of the market watchdog division 5B, Ngo Van Tung, said smugglers have resorted to violence to resist authorities who confiscate their cigarettes.

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• Doctors urge men to stub out their cigarettes  

Even at the National Paediatrics Hospital, where every day scores of children arrive for bronchial check-ups, many fathers can be seen smoking in the waiting room.

A recent survey conducted by the Ha Noi School of Public Health on public perceptions about smoking reported that 100 per cent of respondents said that smoking was harmful to health.

However, the school's doctor Pham Quynh Nga said only one third of the survey's respondents knew that smoking resulted in diseases for smokers and second-hand smokers.

Another survey from the Viet Nam Consumer Protection and Standards Association reported that though most people agreed to the Government's ban on smoking in public places, only 37.4 per cent agreed to the ban in crowded, open-air settings.

"The survey's results prove the community's awareness about second-hand smoking is still inadequate. Government policies to enforce the country's ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are limited," Do Gia Phan, the association's chairman, said.

Government Decree 45 has instituted fines of between VND50,000-VND100,000 for each violation, but as it stands, very few people have actually been fined. . . .

The country's health experts have warned that 8 million Vietnamese will die from smoking-related diseases by 2010 if the number of chain smokers doesn't fall.

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• Vietnam calls for tobacco-free young generation 

Vietnam will launch a National Non-smoking Week from May 25-31 in an effort to raise public responsibility in protecting young people from the dangers of smoking.

A meeting was held in Hanoi on May 24 by the Health Ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to mark World Non-smoking Day (May 31) and the National Non-smoking Week.

To achieve the target of the National Non-smoking Week, according to a Health Ministry official, ban should be imposed on all forms of advertisement, trade promotions and sponsorship by tobacco companies in addition to the introduction of policies, such as increasing retail prices and import tax and putting a ban on selling cigarettes to under-18 people.

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• Cigarette smugglers outwit officials 

AN GIANG -- Renewed efforts to stop contraband cigarettes being imported from Cambodia are likely to prove ineffective as the authorities admit to losing control over the market.

A "hot spot" for smuggled cigarettes, the southern province of An Giang has become a thriving centre for traffickers.

On the 50km road connecting Long Xuyen City with the border town of Chau Doc, many motorbike drivers were found to be carrying large packages of cigarettes while speeding.

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• Rampant cigarette smuggling costs Vietnam $186 mln annually 

Tobacco smuggling is on the increase and costs Vietnam between US$155 million and $186 million a year in tax, a meeting on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City heard.

At the meeting, the Vietnam Tobacco Association and relevant agencies reviewed the fight against cigarette smuggling and discussed measures to intensify crackdowns.

Illegal imports of tobacco and cigarettes mainly through land borders with Laos and Cambodia were steadily increasing, according to figures from market research firm ACNielsen and the central steering committee responsible for combating contraband, fake goods, and trade fraud.

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• More information on health risks to be added to cigarette packages 

More information on the harmful effect of smoking will be put on domestically-produced cigarettes beginning March 17, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Health.

The warnings will consist of pictures or words covering 30 percent of the surface of the package.

Five warning messages will be used: “Smoking causes lung cancer”, “Smoking harms pregnant women and children”, “Smoking causes intra-cerebral hemorrhage”, “Smoking causes chronic obstructive lung disease”, and “Smokers will suffer halitosis and teeth decay”.

This move follows Viet Nam’s ratification of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

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• 30,000-40,000 Vietnamese die from smoking annually  

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people in Vietnam die of diseases caused by smoking each year, according to local newspaper Youth on Monday.

Some 56 percent of local men aged 15 upwards are cigarette smokers, the newspaper quoted the Vietnam Tobacco Control Program as reporting.

In recent years, smokers in Vietnam have spent over 8.2 trillion Vietnamese dong (512.5 million U.S. dollars) on smoking, said the program's secretary, Phan Thi Hai.

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• 30,000-40,000 Vietnamese die from smoking annually 

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people in Vietnam die of diseases caused by smoking each year, according to local newspaper Youth on Monday.

Some 56 percent of local men aged 15 upwards are cigarette smokers, the newspaper quoted the Vietnam Tobacco Control Program as reporting.

In recent years, smokers in Vietnam have spent over 8.2 trillion Vietnamese dong (512.5 million U.S. dollars) on smoking, said the program's secretary, Phan Thi Hai.

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• Smoking annually kills over 40,000 Vietnamese 

Smoking has annually killed over 40,000 people in Vietnam in recent years, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times quoted a WHO survey as reporting on Friday.

According to the survey by the World Health Organization (WHO),80 percent of Vietnamese lung cancer patients contract the disease because of smoking. The country spent more than 800 billion Vietnamese dong (50 million U.S. dollars) treating sufferers from smoking-related diseases.

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