It\'s going to be a drag if you haven\'t quit

Dr Wedad Al Maidour DUBAI - Arabstoday   Do not try to light up in a car when there\'s a child inside; a policeman can stop and fine you. A law to this effect has been in place since 2009, a senior doctor with the Ministry of Health said.The UAE will also make it tougher for shops to sell cigarettes. At present even groceries sell cigarettes, but that could stop once the Federal Anti-Tobacco bylaw is passed. Shops would then need licences to sell tobacco products. And that\'s not all. Shopkeepers cannot display cigarettes or other tobacco products near the cash counters where shoppers might be tempted to buy them. Tobacco products will have to be placed way back inside the store.
The UAE is a signatory to the treaty called the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Once a country signs the treaty, it has to protect its citizens and residents from exposure to tobacco smoke. We spoke to Dr Wedad Al Maidour, head of the tobacco control committee, on what the UAE is doing to discourage smoking. Excerpts:

DR WEDAD AL MAIDOUR: The UAE signed the FCTC in 2005. An organisation was set up in the Ministry of Health to apply it. The next year it was revised and in 2009 the anti-tobacco law was passed.
[The ban against smoking in public places went into effect even before the law was passed].
That\'s because while the Ministry of Health is the leader in this, local government authorities will have to implement it the various municipalities, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance and so on have to be involved.

The packaging should not be attractive to arouse the interest of girls or young men. The UAE has already banned all forms of advertising [of tobacco products] in all media. It has banned the sale of cigarettes to young men below the age of 18. It has made closed public spaces such as malls, universities, schools, places of worship, cinemas, and offices smoke-free.
There are very strict rules in place where shisha bars can be allowed, They are banned from residential areas.
The area of the bar should be more than 2,000 [square] feet. There is already a ban on smoking in a car with a child inside.
As part of the FTCT we have to provide a helpline to people who wish to quit. Since 2007, we have set up seven cessation clinics. We have set up three such clinics in schools in Dubai, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah. Each year bout 200 people enrol in the clinics. We have a 25 per cent success rate in [terms of] getting people to quit completely. There are plans to expand the clinics\' working hours. You can walk in any time and will not need an appointment. Soon we will get people who wish to quit into the health insurance scheme.
We are also trying to increase the prices of cigarettes and tobacco products by 100 per cent.
Smoking, whether a cigarette, shisha or midwaq, will make you take in nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide [some experts call the last the ‘silent shadow\']. There is a growing use of midwaq by the youth today.
When you smoke a shisha, you inhale a high concentration of carbon monoxide. [Midwaq is a small pipe in which tobacco and bark herbs are smoked. The bowl is smaller than the usual pipe. ‘One-hitters\' like this pipe and tobacco combination as it gives one an instant ‘buzz\' and a light-headed state of mind]. We know that smoking causes lung cancer.
It also leads to lung obstructive diseases as emphysemia [where lung capacity goes down and it requires more effort to breathe normally]. Eventually, there is lung failure.

It also leads to high blood pressure which causes heart attacks and strokes. Because of the pesticides used, there are 4,000 toxic materials in tobacco, 59 of them are carcinogenic.
Smoking is highly addictive. It is a cheap addiction.
We have very successful stories. It is never difficult to give up. The smoking cessation programmes are free for locals [Emiratis]. There is a very small fee for expatriates. We also have a free helpline in collaboration with du.
In Western countries such as Canada, it is socially unacceptable to smoke. They have applied the rules (of the FCTC).
You cannot smoke anywhere.
The new generation does not like to smoke. They know it is very costly to treat complications from smoking; you die young [if you smoke].
I am hopeful that in the next five years the UAE will present a very different picture [than what it is today].
From / Gulf News