AMMAN — On World No-Tobacco Day, Tuesday,
HH Princess Dina Mired launched two guidelines for use by health inspectors at the Ministry
of Health and the Amman Municipality to streamline control over the use and
sale of tobacco and related products.
اضافة اعلان
The Jordan News
Agency, Petra, said the two manuals outline the legal framework for the control
process and lay out the steps that health inspectors must follow to guarantee
that the inspection and control system is functioning properly.
Meanwhile,
according to the
World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, the cost of waste
resulting from all tobacco products in Jordan were estimated at about JD40
million annually.
Princess Dina
said during a ceremony that 3.5 million hectares of land are lost each year for
tobacco growing, resulting in deforestation, soil degradation, and the loss of
water, fossil fuels, and minerals.
She noted that
cigarette butts generate 1.69 billion pounds of toxic waste and unleash
thousands of chemicals into the air, water, and land, calling for the full
enforcement of the Public Health Law and assisting inspectors in protecting
citizens from tobacco and its harmful effects.
Dr Raed Al-Shboul,
secretary-general of the Ministry of Health for Primary Health Care and
Epidemiology, said that Jordan is committed to fighting smoking, as indicated
by its 2004 ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
He vowed that
the
Ministry of Health will continue to enforce the law and allocate smoke-free
spaces in public throughout the Kingdom, emphasizing that the ministry had
taken a number of legal, educational, administrative, and control steps.
Dr Jamila
Al-Rabi, the World Health Organization’s representative in Jordan, said that
the Ministry of Health, the
Greater Amman Municipality, and WHO in Jordan made
a significant effort to release the two guides in order to improve tobacco
product inspection and control.
Al-Rabi cited a
study on the number of smokers in Jordan undertaken by the Ministry of Health
in collaboration with the organization, which found that 80 percent of adults
in Jordan are exposed to passive smoking.
She said the report also
revealed alarming statistics on smoking in Jordan, which require an effective
response to outlaw smoking in public areas.
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