06 April 2009
DAMASCUS - In its statistics, the Syrian General Establishment of Tobacco pointed out that smokers annually spend about S.P. 26 billion (USD 600 million) which means that each smoker spends 8 percent of his annual income to buy about 3,6 kg of cigarettes.
The statistics stressed that the percentage of smokers raise to 15 %, where the informal studies indicated that the real percentage is more than 20 %.
The study, made by the Syrian Center for Smoking Researches, showed that the rate of smokers among men reaches 60 percent and 23 percent for women.
Due to the danger of smoking on the smoker himself and his society, the Syrian government exerted all efforts to combat smoking through issuing a number of decrees to prevent tobacco propaganda like the Decree No.13 for the year 1996 and the legislative Decree No. 59 for the year 2004 which allowed Syria to join the Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization which aims at protecting of the current and future generations from the health, social, environmental and economic repercussions of smoking, through setting up measures of controlling smoking.
Syrian Health Ministry warned against circulating the electronic cigarettes, asserting that this product isn't scientifically studied and there are no sufficient researches to show its advantages and disadvantages.
Social Researcher Talal Mustafa said that the Law of preventing tobacco is good but the problem lies in means of activating it on the ground.
Bosnian scientists, in a study in cooperation with regional and international health associations, showed that the social crisis and problems raise the percentage of smokers in various societies, pointing out that Turkey ranked first for a long time among societies in cigarettes consumption, but it retreated to the 4th rank after Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia where the percentage of smokers reached between 35 to 38 among adults during the late ten years.
DAMASCUS - In its statistics, the Syrian General Establishment of Tobacco pointed out that smokers annually spend about S.P. 26 billion (USD 600 million) which means that each smoker spends 8 percent of his annual income to buy about 3,6 kg of cigarettes.
The statistics stressed that the percentage of smokers raise to 15 %, where the informal studies indicated that the real percentage is more than 20 %.
The study, made by the Syrian Center for Smoking Researches, showed that the rate of smokers among men reaches 60 percent and 23 percent for women.
Due to the danger of smoking on the smoker himself and his society, the Syrian government exerted all efforts to combat smoking through issuing a number of decrees to prevent tobacco propaganda like the Decree No.13 for the year 1996 and the legislative Decree No. 59 for the year 2004 which allowed Syria to join the Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization which aims at protecting of the current and future generations from the health, social, environmental and economic repercussions of smoking, through setting up measures of controlling smoking.
Syrian Health Ministry warned against circulating the electronic cigarettes, asserting that this product isn't scientifically studied and there are no sufficient researches to show its advantages and disadvantages.
Social Researcher Talal Mustafa said that the Law of preventing tobacco is good but the problem lies in means of activating it on the ground.
Bosnian scientists, in a study in cooperation with regional and international health associations, showed that the social crisis and problems raise the percentage of smokers in various societies, pointing out that Turkey ranked first for a long time among societies in cigarettes consumption, but it retreated to the 4th rank after Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia where the percentage of smokers reached between 35 to 38 among adults during the late ten years.
By H.Zain / Ghossoun
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2009
