KUWAIT: Kuwait is exerting continuous efforts in cooperation with NGOs to confront the fatal scourge of smoking through a comprehensive strategy that relies on enforcement, prevention, and treatment, said Health Minister Dr Ahmad Al-Awadhi.

The statement came during his opening speech at the International Tobacco Control Conference titled “The Smoking Epidemic and Conflicts of Interest,” organized by the Kuwait Society for Smoking and Cancer Prevention in cooperation with the National Anti-Smoking Program at the Ministry of Health.

Dr Al-Awadhi said that tobacco is one of the most dangerous health risks facing the world, with statistics showing that over one billion people around the world smoke tobacco, causing the deaths of more than a million individuals each year. He explained that tobacco contains toxic chemicals like nicotine and cyanide, which damage the human body over time and may increase the risk of dangerous diseases such as heart disease, stroke, lung damage, and various cancers.

Chairman of the Board of Kuwait Society for Smoking and Cancer Prevention Dr Khalid Al-Saleh said that serious and “sincere work must be made to protect our societies, particularly the young against the dangers of the tobacco industry that is targeting them, taking advantage of their influence on the economies of developing countries”.

Dr Al-Awadhi said the WHO gave special interest to the negative effects of the tobacco industry, especially in developing countries which incur tremendous economic and health losses due to the import or manufacturing of tobacco products.

Dr Al-Awadhi said this reflects the importance of the countries having strict legislations that ban smoking in various places. He added that the media bears major responsibility in raising society’s awareness of the dangers of this deadly phenomenon and its negative effects on public health and society.

“Confronting the tobacco industry and promotion is the best way to reduce the harms it causes, bearing in mind that there are governments lose tremendous amounts of money to provide treatments for smoking-related diseases, particularly the rise in chronic diseases, such as cancer,” said Dr Al-Saleh

Dr Al-Saleh emphasized the environmental damage resulting from farming tobacco, which leads to social and economic harm. He added that the damage highlights the need to consolidate efforts to raise awareness “the sad reality we live in,” referring to the existence of nearly 1.1 billion smokers aged 15 and older, with 80 percent residing in low- and middle-income countries. Statistics indicate that around 10 percent of individuals aged 13 to 15 worldwide use tobacco, including 12 million adolescents who use new products — a number likely underreported due to a lack of data in over 70 countries.

He said warnings against smoking also include e-cigarettes that contain nicotine and are as harmful as traditional tobacco products. He noted that e-cigarettes are rapidly spreading among society members, particularly the youth and adolescents in addition to the spread of smoking among women. The WHO recently announced that smoking constitutes one of the major threats to public health globally, leading to the death of more than seven million persons per year due to direct use of tobacco, in addition to 1.3 deaths due to passive smoking.