The International Conference on Tobacco Control opened and warned of its serious dangers

Minister of Health Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadhi stressed that “tobacco is one of the most dangerous health threats the world has ever faced, as statistics indicate that more than a billion people use tobacco around the world, and that smoking causes the death of more than a million people annually in various countries of the world.”

Minister Al-Awadhi pointed out in his speech, during the opening of the International Conference on Tobacco Control under the title “The Scourge of Smoking and Conflict of Interest” organized by the Kuwait Society for Combating Smoking and Cancer in cooperation with the National Program for Combating Smoking in the Ministry, that “tobacco contains toxic chemicals such as nicotine and cyanide, which are substances that harm the human body over time, and smoking leads to an increased risk of serious diseases such as heart disease, stroke, lung damage and many types of cancer.”

He explained that “the State of Kuwait, in close cooperation with civil society institutions, is making continuous efforts to combat the deadly scourge of smoking through a comprehensive strategy based on the main axes of control, prevention and treatment,” noting that “the World Health Organization has paid special attention to the economics of the tobacco industry and its harmful effects, especially in developing countries that suffer huge economic and health losses due to the import or manufacture of tobacco products.”

He pointed out “the importance of the role of countries in enacting strict legislation that prohibits smoking in official facilities, and the media, whether audio, print or visual, bears a great responsibility in educating society about the dangers of this deadly phenomenon and its negative effects on public health and society.”

For his part, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Anti-Smoking and Cancer Society, Dr. Khaled Al-Saleh, indicated that “confronting the tobacco industry and promotion is the best way to reduce the damage it causes, and that there are billions that governments pay to provide special treatments for diseases resulting from smoking in all its types and sources, especially the high rates of chronic diseases, most notably cancer.”

He pointed out that “the environmental damage caused by tobacco cultivation, as well as the social and economic damages, put us in front of the responsibility of unifying efforts to show the frightening reality we live in today, with about 1.1 billion tobacco smokers aged 15 years or older, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries.”

He added that “the scourge of smoking is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, resulting in the death of more than 7 million people annually as a result of direct tobacco use, in addition to 1.3 million deaths due to exposure to second-hand smoke.”

He pointed out that “statistics indicate that about 10 percent of people aged 13 to 15 years around the world use tobacco, including 12 million teenagers who use new products, which are numbers that are less than the reality due to lack of data in more than 70 countries.”

He also warned against electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine and are considered harmful to health like traditional tobacco products and are widely and rapidly spreading among all segments of society, especially young people and teenagers, in addition to the spread of smoking among women.

He stressed that “creating national programmes to combat smoking is one of the indicators of the interest of government agencies in confronting the scourge of smoking and reducing its health, environmental and economic damages, and that such steps can be built upon and communication networks can be formed with the relevant authorities to push towards developing and implementing policies to confront the tobacco economy.”