Tobacco.org

SYRIA: Non-smokers encouraged to keep up momentum 

Health officials are renewing their efforts to encourage villagers in southern Syria to stop smoking following the initial success of a pilot project in the area. Almost a third of those who had initially given up smoking had started again.

Although largely successful, the programme to combat smoking, run by the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO), needs to be monitored closely, health officials say.

According to the officials, around 90 percent of the 4,200 inhabitants of Akraba village, in the Dar'a governorate, 100 km south of the capital Damascus, had stopped smoking. This followed campaigns run since 1996, to raise villagers' awareness of the dangers of smoking through the Healthy Villages Programme (HVP).

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