The Tobacco Control Center at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), a WHO Collaborating Center, joined the world in celebrating the World No Tobacco Day, which is observed annually every 31 May.
This year’s theme for World No Tobacco Day is We Need Food, Not Tobacco, set by the World Health Organization (WHO), highlights the impact of tobacco cultivation on the availability of food in the world.
According to HMC Tobacco Control Center Director Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, Qatar has been a pioneer in the field of combating smoking. Qatar is one of the countries that do not encourage the cultivation of tobacco or manufacturing of tobacco products. He said that Qatar contributes to reducing the spread of tobacco use by entering into international agreements on tobacco control, developing and implementing several tobacco control policies and legislations, opening several smoking cessation clinics, raising public awareness on the harmful effects of smoking through awareness campaigns and events, as well as promoting research in the field of tobacco control.
Dr Al Mulla explained that the HMC Tobacco Control Center plays an effective role in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use in Qatar by benefiting from its status as a WHO Collaborating Center, promoting efforts to combat tobacco usage and focusing on scientific research in the field of tobacco control.
We also focus on treatment services with the opening of many clinics to help smokers quit through medication and behavioural therapy and we continue our efforts to raise public awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco products through awareness events and workshops.
World No Tobacco Day at HMC
This year, HMC will mark the World No Tobacco Day with a series of education and awareness events to raise public awareness on the harmful impact of smoking on health and even on economic and social levels.
The events will focus on the theme and will show how smoking has wasted many efforts and funds that could have been better invested in producing food for many people across the world.
Dr Al Mulla stressed the importance of the tobacco control legislations that Qatar has adopted, including the amended Amiri Law No 10 of 2016 on the control of tobacco and its derivates.
This law has placed Qatar at the forefront in combating smoking and has banned manufacturing and marketing of various tobacco products, including nicotine bags, electronic waterpipe (shisha) and heated tobacco products. Other laws have also been issued to support the ban on smoking in closed public places and workplaces. Dr Al Mulla said that the government also raised the prices of tobacco products in 2019 to reduce tobacco use and encourage more smokers to quit.
Dr Al Mulla highlighted the unlimited support that the centre receives from the HMC management and from the country’s Minister of Public Health HE Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, who also chairs the WHO Ministerial Committee on Tobacco Control for the Eastern Mediterranean region, through which she has supported tobacco control activities and programmes in the region. Dr Al Mulla is urging smokers to quit and use the services offered at the Tobacco Control Center.
For more information or to book an appointment, call the HMC Tobacco Control Center at 5080 0959 or at 16060.
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