Dubai Municipality observes World No Tobacco Day

Dubai: Visitors at Dubai Municipality on Sunday got a graphic explanation on the impact smoking has on various bodily organs, especially the lungs.

The illustrations showed the difference between normal lungs and diseased and smoke-damaged ones. They also showed the amount of tar that goes into lungs if a person smokes at least 10 cigarettes a day for a period of one month.

This message was part of Dubai Municipality's way of marking World No Tobacco Day.

Engineer Reda Salman, director of the Public Health and Safety department inaugurated the activities.

An exhibition was organised by the clinic and community health section of the Public Health Services department with the cooperation of the corporate marketing and relations department

Zuhoor Al Sabbagh, director of the Public Health Services department said the campaign aimed to educate the public about the hazards of smoking and the impact on the individual as well as society.

"The campaign is mainly aimed at youth as most of the people start smoking at an early age. The campaign focuses on the importance of healthy life style," she said.

Zuhoor said the campaign also highlighted the efforts of the municipality in providing free treatment to the employees who are smokers and following up on them until they quit smoking.

Nussaibah Hassan Qaid, head of the clinic's community health section said the campaign will continue throughout June and after the summer, it will spread to schools in the emirate.

In addition to the exhibition, visitors to the municipality on Sunday were subjected to tests using Spiro metre to measure the lung function to see the level of carbon monoxide.

The campaign also includes organising online competitions for municipality employees and sporting activities, in addition to mobile medical exhibition for conducting free tests, spreading the message through advertisements in newspapers, posters, roll ups and brochures.