Ramadan anti-tobacco campaign underway

Dubai: Dubai Health Authority on Sunday launched the Ramadan anti-tobacco campaign under the banner 'Together for a Smoke Free Society'.

Dr. Ahmad Ebrahim Bin Kalban, Executive Director of the Primary Health Care sector at the authority, said the campaign is the second phase of the Tobacco Free Dubai project. It aims to spread health awareness among all social sectors about the negative effects of smoking.

Bin Kalban urged smokers to quit starting from Ramadan, pointing out smoking-related diseases are the first cause of death.

Heart diseases caused 33 per cent of deaths in the UAE, while lung cancer caused 14 per cent of deaths.

According to World Health Organisation statistics, smoking caused the death of over 100 million people in the last century, and may cause the death of a billion people this century, Bin Kalban said.

He underscored the alarming increase in the number of young smokers in the UAE, which shot up to 29 per cent of male and 14 per cent of female youngsters.