Qatar is participating in the eighth international conference of the parties to the WHO Convention on Tobacco Control, which is being held in Geneva and will continue until Saturday.
The conference will discuss several topics, foremost of which is the formation of a medium-term strategic framework to define the actions of the parties to the convention over the next five years in the fight against tobacco.
A delegation of the Ministry of Public Health and the Tobacco Control Centre at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) represents Qatar in the conference.
Dr Ahmad al-Mulla, head of the HMC Tobacco Control Centre, adviser to the Minister of Public Health, said that Qatar was one of the first countries to sign and ratify this convention (first in the Gulf and the second in the Arab world) and has become a permanent party, which reflects the state’s keenness to protect its citizens and residents of the dangers of smoking.”
He pointed out that Qatar took several procedures to limit the spread of the tobacco, including banning smoking in public places, preventing the marketing of chewing tobacco, Dokha and electronic cigarettes, preventing the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 18, placing warning pictures on tobacco packages and preventing the advertising of tobacco products in the media.
The Ministry of Public Health issued the national tobacco control plan 2016/2015, based on WHO policy, and seeks to promote the prevention of the impact of smoking on children and young people and to improve the chances of quitting smoking and increase the places without smoking. The ministry’s plan 2018-2022 included ways to reduce the rate of smoking in Qatar. On the preventive and therapeutic level, Qatar witnessed several preventive and awareness-raising programmes, including regular awareness campaigns at schools and universities to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking. There are also several specialised clinics in Qatar to help smokers quit smoking. (QNA)
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