Jump to full article: Arab News (sa), 2009-03-08
Author: K.S. Ramkumar * Arab News
Intro: Hospitals and doctors have intensified the Kingdom’s anti-smoking campaign, which has already become widespread with smoking restrictions in many public places.
“Strangely, despite the campaign against smoking, the habit seems to be growing,” said Dr. Ashraf A. Amir, chief medical officer at the International Medical Center.
Smoking is bad for health and the environment, but it continues to grow among men and women with tobacco manufacturers reporting gains in their annual financial results, said Dr. Amir.
Dr. Amir also warned of the serious health problems that smoking could cause in the long run and advised smokers to kick the habit “before it is too late.”
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a presentation on “Smoking: Dependence, Mechanisms and Cessation” by Dr. Karl Fagerstrom of the Smokers Information Center, Sweden.
Over 120 doctors from public and private health care centers and hospitals attended the lecture, which was organized by Pfizer Inc. to elevate the level of public awareness on deadly and hazardous habits such as smoking.
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