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The battle between health and smoking continues - there is a major attack on people’s health and a stark lack of action to deter it. In 2022 alone, 5.8 million tons of tobacco were produced in the world, a quantity that is equal to the size of some mountains. Even if a mountain collapses on people, it won’t kill seven million human beings as smoking does every year.
The secret of this conflict is that there are economies that thrive on manufacturing and trade in tobacco, and those economies are represented by political leaders and executives with commercial influence that prevents any effective attack on smoking.
Health ministries around the world spend millions to treat patients from the effects of smoking, yet they do not pay hundreds on awareness programs against smoking. What is the secret? Legislative bodies spend days crafting health legislations and supporting health budgets, but those bodies refrain from passing laws to ban smoking, what is the reason?
A VIP asked for a meeting with members of the board of Kuwait Smoking and Cancer Prevention Society (KSCPS). This VIP, that previously occupied the post of Deputy Premier, took a job at a tobacco company, it is not important what had taken place during the meeting, but the important thing is how those companies succeed in attracting influential figures to support them. This is the answer to the two above questions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) organized a workshop on tobacco economics for this reason, a workshop that recommended to hold more scientific meetings to shed the light on this monster named tobacco economies. That is why (KSCPS) organized the Tobacco Economies Conference to draw attention to the size of tobacco economies, how tobacco is promoted and how tobacco economies invade societies to increase the number of smokers and profits. The conference was held Sunday and Monday of this week, and was supported by KNPC and the patients fund aid. Both are out of the tobacco Mafia’s control, so thanks to them.
It’s a long-standing battle that will continue unless states pay attention to those economies, which seem to be merciful on the surface, but are harmful deep within. They seem to support the economy, but they destroy human health. When the governments realize this formula, tobacco economies will collapse, and humans will enjoy health. That health which is the foundation of a beneficial and prosperous economy.
