Asia: Health Official Say Cigarettes Kill 50k Iranians Each Year

Source from:  Tehran Times 02/02/2015

Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayyari said on Sunday that each year 50,000 Iranians die by smoking related causes, IRNA reported.

5.3 million people are presently smoking cigarettes in Iran, Sayyari told a press conference.

Sayyari added that each year smoking cigarettes takes the lives of six million people in the world out of which 600,000 are secondhand smokers.

Cigarette smoking shortens one's lifespan by 20 to 30 years, he said, adding that it increases the risk of lung cancer by 30 times and stroke by 2-4 times.

The deputy health minister blamed cigarettes for 90 percent of lung cancer in men and 80 percent in women.

He also said that one of the main strategies to discourage smoking is to raise cigarette prices through imposing higher levy on its retail prices.

Smoking can be reduced by eight percent, if an additional 10 percent tax is levied on cigarettes, while currently sales tax on retail cigarettes is 11 percent in Iran, he explained.

He also said that smoking a hookah equals to 40 to 100 fags of cigarette, while some people mistakenly believe that hookahs are harmless since the smoke passes through water.

In campaign against the tobacco smoking, besides increasing the cigarette prices more tobacco rehabilitation centers are needed in the country, Sayyari added.

At the same conference, Behzad Valizadeh, a senior official at Iran's Tobacco Control Headquarters, said that display of hookahs and tobacco products behind shop windows will soon be banned. Enditem