Arab Anti-Smoking Week to intensify battle against tobacco

An Arab Anti-Smoking Week will be launched next year as the relentless battle against tobacco continues, a senior Health Ministry official said yesterday.
Speaking at a health education exhibition, Dr Mahmoud Fikry, Assistant Undersecretary for Preventive Medicine at the Ministry of Health, said: "Fighting smoking doesn't end by observing international anti-smoking campaigns. It's an ongoing struggle."
Thus the UAE will continue its concerted drive to discourage people from smoking.
The five-day exhibition was organised by the Preventive Medicine Department as part of the third GCC Anti-Smoking Week. The exhibition portrays the dangers of smoking with audio-visual clips and brochures.
The Red Crescent Society, Schools Health Department, Abu Dhabi Municipality's Health Department, Civil Defence and Emirates Heritage Club are taking part in the exhibition.
The Emirates Heritage Club is conducting a campaign called "Give me Your Cigarette and Take a Flower". It was inaugurated by Fikry and Dr Mohammed Al Balassy, head of the Preventive Care Unit in Abu Dhabi.
The campaign against smoking will continue "as long as cigarettes are sold, factories produce cigarettes and and farms plant tobacco," Fikry declared.
At an international meeting held in Geneva on October 16-21 to draw up a treaty to fight smoking, it was agreed that cigarettes must not sold to those under 18, a percentage of profits from cigarette sales should be spent on anti-smoking campaigns, and tobacco farmers must be given incentives to switch to other crops.
In the UAE the Ministry of Health, the municipalities and other institutions have steadily increased the pressure against smoking.
"Smoking is banned in government buildings in Sharjah, and schools also have introduced a subject which warns students about the dangers of smoking," Fikry said.